Know Your Enemy..

[emanymton]

He clearly knows you.

"Four Troops Abducted, Killed in Iraq Ambush"
By STEVEN R. HURST and QASSIM AB, AP

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Jan. 27) - In perhaps the boldest and most sophisticated attack in four years of warfare, gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted four U.S. soldiers last week at the provincial headquarters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and then shot them to death.

... snip

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/four-troops-abducted-killed-in-iraq

snip ...

The brazen assault, 50 miles south of Baghdad, was conducted by nine to 12 gunmen posing as an American security team, the military confirmed. The attackers traveled in black GMC Suburban vehicles (the type used by U.S. government convoys), had American weapons, wore new U.S. military combat fatigues, and spoke English, according to two senior U.S. military officials as well as Iraqi officials.

None of the American or Iraqi officials would allow use of their names because of the sensitive nature of the information.

The confirmation came after nearly a week of inquiries. The U.S. military in Baghdad initially did not respond to repeated requests for comment on reports that began emerging from Iraqi government and military officials on the abduction and a major breakdown in security at the Karbala site. ..."

[NewJeffCT]

1. The escalation is working out really well, isn't it?

I've been fearful of something like this happening on a larger scale for a while now.

[emanymton]

3. The Enemy Has Changed Tactics ...

'In chaos is profit,' was a throw away line in the old movie "Operation Petticoat." The enemy knows how to exploit any and all weaknesses.

Did one notice how, in the story, the Iranian connection is trying to be added? I find most interesting how little coverage by corporate news this incident is getting.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Why was this story concealed for a week?

This happened last Saturday, but the military released a cover story to hide the gruesome details.

The public did not hear about it until after the SOTU speech, the surge buzz, and the confirmation of Pretraeus.

[magellan]

4. All that official gear and they spoke English too

But was it with an Iraqi (Arabic) accent or an American one?

[frogcycle]

5. since it was Iraqi police they were fooling

the accent probably was not evident

[magellan]

6. Where does it say that?

Not trying to be argumentative, but I've looked and can't find where it says it was Iraqi police they spoke to and fooled in order to capture and kill four US soldiers. Is it in another article on this subject?

[frogcycle]

7. about 1/3 of the way thru

"The Iraqi soldiers believed it to be American because of the type of vehicles, the distinctive camouflage American uniforms and the fact that they spoke English."

[magellan]

8. Drats, I can't get to the page

I trust you. But see, this doesn't make sense. You'd think if it was English with an Iraqi accent it should have given the police pause, unless the suggestion is that they spoke English so well there was no remnant of the native accent. Possible, but it's very hard to do. I lived in the UK for several years and could pick Americans out who'd lived there far longer than me with their first sentence.

I guess we'll never know. But I think I'll keep my tinfoil hat on with this one for the time being! Lots of strange stuff going down over there....

[frogcycle]

9. but you were hearing english with an accent

if I hear someone speaking a language I don't speak, I have NO CLUE whether they have the accent right.

I saw a note the other day about some people in Iraq speaking Arabic "with an Iranian accent" and just laughed out loud at the concept. Not that it is not valid, but at how clueless I would be - and most of our people over there - to detect the nuance

[magellan]

12. Ah, got you now

It's time for me to go to bed, my brain is having difficulty grasping this concept (which I have considered before!). Thanks for clarifying it for me, frogcycle. :hi:

[frogcycle]

10. cross-post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x54731

maybe mods will merge these...

[itsmesgd]

11. An emailer on Malloy brought up a point

What if the reason that they spoke American, looked American, and drove American is because they WERE American? I'm not saying that they were soldiers, but remember that we have thousands of mercenaries, private soldiers, that are fighting for everything from personnel security to "other" principal missions. What if these 5 dead soldiers saw something that the clients of some mercenaries did not want them to see? What if they stumbled onto black ops? Why was the truth hidden? Is this another Pat Tillman, or worse? Do we have US mercenaries employed by warlords, or oil companies, or worse?

So go ahead and call me paraniod, but realise that this war is full of every kind of evil and that nothing is as it seems.

[JackRiddler]

13. Who is the enemy?

People defending their country against foreign invaders- invaders who have killed a million of their compatriots since 1991 and have already murdered millions in the future through the poisoning of the land by way of depleted uranium?

[itsmesgd]

14. The enemy...

He has business connections with the Saudi Royal Family and the Bin Laden family.
His grandfather was convicted of trading with the Nazis and helping them build their war machine.
He has violated the Constitution on countless occassion.
His family and cronies stole two US presidential elections.
His father was the head of a super-secret government spy agency.
He has launched two ilegal wars of invasion to capture the natural resources of soverign countries.
He ilegaly spied on American citizens.


to name but just a few.