Freedom is heavily marching today in Iraq!!!

[sabra]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20050810-0726-iraq-kidnapping.html

Senior interior minister official kidnapped in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Gunmen kidnapped a senior Iraqi Interior Ministry official Wednesday as he drove his car in central Baghdad, police said.
The kidnapping occurred in Baghdad's Andalus Square when gunmen stopped Brig. Gen. Khudayer Abbas, who heads the administrative affairs office at the Interior Ministry.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1751963,00.html

10 doctors killed in Iraq

Karbala - Unidentified gunmen ambushed a group of doctors on their way to help at hospitals, west of Baghdad, killing 10 of them, said medical sources on Wednesday.

The sources said the physicians were travelling to the city of Ramadi when armed men intercepted their vehicle on Tuesday evening.

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-08-10T174548Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-212230-1.xml

Iraq's porn dealers risk wrath of religious right

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic militants threatened to kill him for it, but Abu Mustafa says it was the only way he knew to make a living in the chaos that is Baghdad today.

The pornographic video salesman is among many traders caught between two faces of the new Iraq, one liberated from the state censorship of Saddam Hussein, the other gripped by religious zeal.

"I am scared but what else can I do? I tried lots of other jobs. I worked in a factory, but you just can't make any money in Iraq. It's the only way to support my son," he said on Wednesday.

"There is no way I am going to join the police or army because the insurgents are killing many of them every day."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48529&SelectRegion=Middle_East&SelectCountry=IRAQ

IRAQ: Insecurity threatens to leave students with late start


BAGHDAD, 10 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The start of the academic year for schools and universities in Iraq could be delayed by widespread insecurity, especially if a surge in terrorist attacks derails or delays the constitutional drafting process, according to local government officials.

“If the situation of insecurity in the country worsens still further and there is a delay in the presentation of the new constitution, we are going to be forced to delay the educational year to guarantee the security of students countrywide, as well as of teachers and other staff," said Ahmed Abdul Rahman, a senior official in the Ministry of Education.

....

A deteriorating security situation in Iraq has caused parents to fear for students going to school, and also increased teachers’ concern for their own safety, according to Abdul Rahman.

....

The school year is due to start on 11 September but may have to be postponed to the end of October, local officials suggested. By then, they hope, tensions around the constitutional transition and the insecurity currently prevailing may have eased.

And let's not forget today's "security incidents"....

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MOU024849.htm

Security incidents in Iraq, Aug 10

BAIJI - Four U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded late on Tuesday in an attack on a patrol near the oil town of Baiji, 180 km (115 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement on Wednesday. Police said two Humvee patrol vehicles and a larger armoured vehicle were wrecked.

MOSUL - Fifteen people were killed in separate incidents over the past 24 hours in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. A police source said there were two policemen among the dead. They were gunned down while heading to work.

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed six people and wounded 14 when he drove a car at a police patrol in the Ghazaliya district of western Baghdad, police and Interior Ministry sources said. Two of the dead and two of the wounded were policemen.

....

HABBANIYA - A U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire on Tuesday in the town of Habbaniya, west of Baghdad near Ramadi, a U.S. military statement said. * BAIJI - Gunmen attacked a checkpoint manned by Iraqi army and police near Baiji, killing four soldiers and wounding four, including a civilian, police said. (Reporting by Amer Amery in Tikrit, Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul, Faris al-Mehdawi in Baquba and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad)

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. It's on the march all right... can't you hear the millions of boots slap-

ping against the pavement as they goosestep along?

[barb162]

2. The second story on the doctors being killed

if anyone has any explanation for that I would love to hear it.

[sabra]

4. black ops?

just a theory...

[barb162]

6. what is black ops

never heard of that... what does it mean

[sabra]

8. CIA special op troops

[Terran]

5. You mean as to why the insurgents

would kill a bunch of doctors? Assuming they knew they were doctors, and probably did, I figure they figure it's a good way to make the chaos worse. Stress out what little healthcare/hospital system exists there right now and it's just one more thing to make things worse.

In the long run, though, what does this accomplish? It's effect seems neutral toward making the US leave, and it has no obvious religious overtones. If anything it may tend to increase US presence on some level, as US personnel may be assigned to fill the gap these ten deaths create.

[barb162]

7. That's what I mean

Other than to make chaos, why kill doctors? I can find no rational explanation to kill doctors. But why do they want to make chaos? Do they want to set up their own regime. I wish people would start focussing on the intent of the terrorists and I would call the people who did this terrorists.

[spanone]

3. Thank God that insugency is in it's last throes.

As fuckhead Cheney described it.