AP News Alert -- Sergio Vieira de Mello, U.N. coordinator in Iraq

[undergroundrailroad]

AP News Alert


The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 19, 2003; 9:43 AM


BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sergio Vieira de Mello, U.N. coordinator in Iraq, was wounded in car bombing, U.N. spokesman says.
© 2003 The Associated Press


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13546-2003Aug19?language=printer



NOTE: This LBN thread will follow the progress of Sergio Vieira De Mello, U.N. coordinator in Iraq.

For more LBN information regarding the explosion at UN headquarters in Baghdad, use this link.

[CBHagman]

1. I pray he'll survive and recover.

As much as I hate to say it, having the name of one of the victims helps bring home the horror of what's going on. I just hate this whole situation.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

2. sadly i doubt that they will allow him to survive

"Never again will I trust anyone in power. I start from the immediate assumption that they are lying, and the burden is then on them to convince me that they are telling the truth."

[caribmon]

3. This is bullshit

The UN building, now the UN leadership in Iraq. There is something really fucking weird going on here. Call me a conspiracy freak if you want. But why would the Iraqis go after the UN?

There is no good reason, except if they want to ensure the UN keep out... Hmmm... The Dutch are already teetering due to high depleted uranium levels in the areas they are supposed to 'patrol'. The Americans said it was safe, then the pragmatic Hollanders sent in their own geiger counter team and found out it's way over sane levels to sit in.

It's pullout time for the world community. The coalition of the 'willing' will probably fall apart now. Just like the disaster in Somalia, the chess game goes on.

Can't say I am sorry. I am rather pleased. This is one step closer to taking Bushco down.

[Rose Siding]

9. It is but "Can't say I am sorry. I am rather pleased. "?

You think this will take Bush down? No. What will happen instead (in addition to your leaning to be pleased by the death of others) is that whatever horrid thing he decides to do will continue to make us and the rest of the world less safe.

The only thing that will bring him down, the US govt being controlled by his minions currently, is an electoral tidal wave. I'm going out on a limb here to say that cheering anyone's death and destruction won't be a part of the winning platform.

[ze_dscherman]

4. BBC reports probably he was the target

Mr Lone told the BBC rescue workers were struggling to free Mr de Mello from the wreckage of his office.

The blast took place "right below" his window, he said.


"I guess it was targeted for that.

"His office and the offices around him no longer exist - it is all rubble," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3163877.stm

[KoKo]

5. There are reports he's trapped in his office which was hit first.......

reports of giving him water.......

[KoKo]

6. Don't flame me...but I think it was a signal to the UN....a plea for help.

Bush said he would not involve the UN more broadly in peace keeping efforts last week, and this was not good news to those of us who want the UN to put peacekeepers in so we can get most of troops out.

This is either anger at the UN or a way to get attention of the world on this Occupation. The attacks on soldiers and the pipelines wasn't getting much world attention.......by bombing the UN it's sure to focus much more attention on this
Occupation of Iraq.

[undergroundrailroad]

7. Why does * tape his speeches?

vs. broadcasting live?

[Hobarticus]

10. Because he's an IDIOT live....

Seriously, he has to be heavily edited. His handlers know their charge well.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. kick

[0rganism]

11. RIP, Sergio Vieira de Mello

And one more eloquent voice is taken away from the people of the world.

Somber to Shocked


U N I T E D N A T I O N S, Aug.19 — All morning, employees gathered around TV monitors at the U.N. headquarters in New York as the mood swung from somber to shocked — a far cry from the relaxed and smiling greetings usual in the hallways here.
Moment to moment, they tried to follow the drama in Iraq including the plight of U.N. special representative to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, said to be trapped in the rubble of his office — from which he was reported to have called for help on his cell phone, and where he was variously and hopefully rumored to be receiving treatment, or at least drinking water.

Around midday, employees here absorbed another shock with the first transmission of the Japanese TV pictures from inside the building in Baghdad, showing a news conference there at the moment the bomb went off.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhardt, said at noon that "nothing this big has happened before" to a U.N. headquarters anywhere.

By early afternoon, the mood was only dampened further with unconfirmed reports, broadcast on some U.S. networks, that Vieira de Mello's chief of staff in Baghdad, Nadia Younis, could also be among the missing.

At 1:23 p.m., a tearful voice over the public address speakers in the main U.N. building announced that the secretary-general had to announce with great regret that his special representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, had been killed in the morning's attack.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/GoodMorningAmerica/iraq030819_blast.html