WP: Rage Explodes After Another Baghdad Blast (Page A01)

[UpInArms]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39504-2004Jun14.html

BAGHDAD, June 14 -- The insurgency against the U.S. occupation shook the heart of Baghdad on Monday with a powerful bombing that killed five foreigners and at least eight Iraqis -- all civilians -- and attracted a mob of enraged Iraqi men who screamed their anger at the United States, torched vehicles and vowed to kill any Americans remaining in their country.

Young men jumped on three bombed-out SUVs and smashed them with crowbars before setting them afire in scenes of uncontrolled fury heretofore unseen in the Iraqi capital with its extensive U.S. security. The blast was strong enough to rip the facade off a three-story building beside the street and rattle the Ishtar Sheraton Hotel about a mile away.

The U.S. military identified the slain foreigners as an American, two Britons, a Frenchman and one of unknown nationality. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, in a televised statement, said they were civilian contractors working to restore Iraq's rickety electricity grid, whose constant failings are one of the Iraqis' main complaints against the 14-month-old U.S. occupation.

<snip>

As the mob kicked and flailed at the twisted vehicles shortly after the explosion and Iraqi police stood aside, a half-dozen Humvees roared up and U.S. soldiers jumped out. They pointed their M-16 automatic rifles and heavy machine guns at the crowd and, shouting obscenities, ordered onlookers away from the site of the explosion. One Humvee pushed its way into a knot of Iraqis to force them back over a low wall and into neighboring Nation Park.

...more...

Oh yes, we have progress!

[minkyboodle]

1. freedom haters.......

they're freedom haters..... (whispered) we're freedom lovers....

[pinto]

2. I noticed a slight expansion in Condi's take this weekend. Violence is

"expected" to rise before and after the turnover of soveriegnty...

this is so effing insane, I don't have enough "'s to enclose their statements, and their adjustments to last week's statements.....and so deadly, this plan without a plan

[Gloria]

3. Glad they mentioned the crowd being angry and shouting against

Americans....thought that wouldn't see the light of day here.

The BBC World Service was also reporting that the crowd "pushed back" American soldiers.............

[TahitiNut]

4. Gee, you don't suppose these folks changed their minds?

Why is it the few pictures I've seen shows more now in the streets screaming their anger and demanding the US leave Iraq? Why don't the newspapers print both photos side by side?

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[daleo]

It looks like it will be a long hot summer

By the look of those photos, this population will never agree to occupation or a puppet government.

[shockingelk]

10. thanks for the side by side! n/t

[grasswire]

5. this is worth noting

"The bombings happening in Iraq these days are part of the U.S. plan," affirmed Wasam Basim, 24, who works for the Facilities Protection Service, a U.S.-financed corps assigned to prevent attacks such as Monday's. "They are doing these bombings to show the world that Iraq is an unsafe country and they have to stay longer to maintain security. Also, they want to find an excuse not to hand over full sovereignty to the Iraqi government."

Veddy interesting.

[Rene]

6. what you see is not what you get

That scene showing the circle with Hussein's statue being torn down is b.s.
There were NO ordinary Iraqis there, on the scene, greeting American's over a year ago.

When that statue was 'torn down' it was a staged event with Chalabi's 700 man army that had just been flown in from Kuwait on military transport planes.
The big burly guy that pounded on the statue with a sledge hammer can be seen just over Chalabi's right shoulder in a photo of when they'd landed at the newly opened Baghdad airport back then.

[Rene]

7. now I'm wondering

Where IS Chalabi's 700 man army? What are THEY up to in Iraq?
the U.S. just cut off all of his funding after he'd received gzillions.
Wonder who those guys were in the first place? Where they all came from?
What ever happened to the 15 points of info that showed it wasn't Iraqis in the beheading film of Nick Berg? too fat...hands too white...wearing gold jewelry....military cap then uniform accidentally in lower right corner of frames...flak jackets on three...white ked sneakers on one...poor use of Iraqi language...white chair that's in AbuGhraib(the hall photo/the female MP's sitting in it/and Berg's sitting in it....the orange prison garb, etc.
Will that ever get checked out?

[FreakinDJ]

8. Your on the right track

and welcome to DU

Was thinking the same thing my self

[newyawker99]

17. Hi Rene!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[TahitiNut]

9. Uhhh... virtually all DUers know that. Welcome!

:hi:


FYI ... assuming virtually everyone on DU knows that the "statue pull" was a faked event, I thought it went without saying that my post targets the nature of the media information we're fed - the "spin" we get that inflates (or fabricates) the 'good' and trivializes (or hides) the 'bad.'

[Rene]

11. knowing who the 'enemy' is

It's my opinion that the U.S. Military should track every one of those 700 armed guys and account for what they're all doing, as of now....

They are the largest non-native Iraqi group on the ground there. What were they hired for? by whom? Who's supporting them now and giving them orders? I don't get the feeling they're part of the Iraqi police/military.

[Rene]

12. knowing who the 'enemy' is

It's my opinion that the U.S. Military should track every one of those 700 armed guys and account for what they're all doing, as of now....

They are the largest non-native Iraqi group on the ground there. What were they hired for? by whom? Who's supporting them now and giving them orders? I don't get the feeling they're part of the Iraqi police/military.

[NJCher]

13. the dead foreigners get removed from the scene

Dead Iraqis are just left in the streets.

I shudder when I think of how it must feel to be treated that way.


Cher

[Robbien]

14. It would be hard to believe the Iraqis would trust Americans with

their dead. So it is good the Americans don't take them, but it is awful that because of the Americans being there the Iraqis no longer have a system which helps them care for their dead.

[NJCher]

16. that's actually not true

They do have a system. Check the NY Times for an article that appeared about four months ago. It was about the women who wash the bodies of the dead.


Cher

[drNick]

15. Bring Em On... GW Bush

[newyawker99]

18. Hi drNick!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: