Iraq War

[LowerCaseRepublican]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/midd...ast/2929411.stm

 

Story straight from the BBC. Do you think the US and UK militaries will ever get tired of lying?

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One feature of the war in Iraq was the speed and immediacy with which many

events were reported by the media. Some of these turned out to be not

quite what they seemed, others are still surrounded by confusion. Was this

the fog of war, effects-based warfare, propaganda, or error? BBC News

Online takes stock:

 

 

Scuds

 

Coalition account: On day one of the war, 20 March, military spokesmen for

the US and UK announce that "Scud-type" missiles have been fired into

Kuwait. This was significant because Iraq was banned from having Scuds or

other missiles of a similar range under UN resolutions.

 

Clarification: Three days later US General Stanley McChrystal reports: "So

far there have been no Scuds launched."

 

 

Umm Qasr falls

 

Coalition account: The fall of Umm Qasr, an Iraqi town and port near the

border with Kuwait, is announced and reported several times in the first

days of the war - the first of these on 20 March. On 21 March Admiral

Michael Boyce, UK chief of defence staff, and Donald Rumsfeld, US defence

secretary, report that the town has fallen to coalition forces.

 

Other reports: Various media outlets report heavy fighting in Umm Qasr on

22 and 23 March.

 

 

Basra uprising

 

UK military's account: On the evening of 25 March British military

intelligence officials report a "popular civilian uprising" in Basra.

Major General Peter Wall, British Chief of Staff at Allied Central Command

in Qatar, confirms that it appears an uprising has taken place, but that

it is in its infancy and British troops are "keen to exploit its

potential". The officials say Iraqi troops in the city turned mortar fire

on their own civilians in an attempt to crush the unrest.

 

British journalist Richard Gaisford, who is with the Royal Scots Dragoon

Guards just outside Basra, says British troops are bombarding the mortar

positions in an effort to support the uprising.

 

Other reports: Also on 25 March Arabic television stations report no sign

of an uprising and that the city is quiet. Iraqi officials deny reports of

an uprising, calling them "hallucinations".

 

Further UK account: On 26 March, deputy commander of British forces

Major-General Peter Wall says the uprising is "just the sort of

encouraging indication we have been looking for". But he adds: "To avoid

any excessive optimism at this stage I should say we don't have any

absolutely clear indication of the scale and scope of this uprising or

exactly what has engendered it."

 

Conclusion: There is still no independent verification that an uprising

occurred in Basra.

 

 

Tank column

 

Initial reports: On the evening of 26 March reports emerge that a column

of 120 Iraqi tanks and armoured vehicles are heading south out of Basra.

Major Mick Green, of the UK's 40 Commando, is quoted by the Mirror

newspaper as saying: "We have no idea why this column has come out at the

moment. Their intentions or motives are totally unclear but they have

adopted an offensive posture and do not want to surrender, so we have

attacked them."

 

Later reports: Newspapers and news bulletins the next morning carry

accounts of fierce fighting and a large battle.

 

Clarification: Later on 27 March, a British military official is quoted as

saying: "It was 14-0." This is understood to have meant that the Iraqi

column consisted of only 14 vehicles. The official put the initial reports

down to "the fog of war" and an erroneous radar signal.

 

 

Market explosions

 

On 26 March an explosion at a market in Baghdad's Shaab district kills at

least 14 civilians. The BBC's Andrew Gilligan visits the scene. "What

seemed to be two missiles landed in a busy shopping parade. The nearest

military building, civil defence headquarters, is I have to say at least

quarter of a mile away," he reports. The cause of the blast is still

disputed.

 

Iraqi account: Following the first blast, at Shaab, Iraq claims that

coalition forces are targeting Iraqi civilians.

 

US account: Initial briefings from US officials say coalition aircraft

targeted nine Iraqi missiles and launchers in Baghdad during 26 March.

Officials say Iraqis have placed the missiles in a residential area less

than 100 metres (300 feet) from homes. Later in the day, the Pentagon

insists that they did not target the market area in Baghdad. Major General

Stanley McChrystal of the US joint staff says he did not know whether the

explosions were caused by a stray US weapon or perhaps Iraqi anti-aircraft

missiles that fell back to earth.

 

A US military spokesman at coalition Central Command says: "Our early

intelligence report provides no conclusive evidence that we have caused

the damage in the civilian marketplace. One possibility and high

probability is that it was caused from the fallout from the regime's

anti-aircraft fire."

 

Other reports: The BBC's Andrew Gilligan says that explanation is

"unlikely because we simply haven't heard any anti-aircraft fire in the

city for the past four days".

 

On 29 March, an explosion at a market in the Shula district of Baghdad

kills more than 50 civilians.

 

US account: A US Central Command spokesman in Qatar suggests the likely

cause was Iraqi fire. One issue likely to be examined in both market

bombings, the New York Times reports, is the relatively small size of the

craters, in the case of the attack at Shula they were closer to the kind

associated with mortars, artillery shells or small bombs, than to the kind

of craters commonly caused by American bombs or missiles in Baghdad.

 

Other reports: The British Independent newspaper reports on 2 April that

its correspondent in Baghdad, Robert Fisk, has found a 30-centimetre-long

piece of shrapnel at the site of the Shula bombing showing the serial

number of the bomb. The newspaper says that the number identifies the

cause of the explosion as a US anti-radar missile manufactured in Texas by

the Raytheon company and sold to the US navy.

 

UK Government account: On 2 April UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says of

the first bombing, in the Shaab district: "It is increasingly probable

that this was the result of Iraqi - not coalition - action."

 

On 3 April the UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon says that the there is no

evidence that the market bombings were caused by coalition missiles other

than evidence provided by the Iraqi regime. He says that there are Western

intelligence reports that Iraqi officials had "cleared up" the site of the

Shula bombing "to disguise their own responsibility for what took place".

 

Conclusion: Coalition officials say both bombings are still under

investigation.

 

 

Executions

 

UK account: At a press conference on 27 March with the US president at

Camp David, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair says that Iraq has executed two

British soldiers whose bodies were shown on Arabic television.

 

"If anyone needed any further evidence of the depravity of Saddam's

regime, this atrocity provides it," he says. "It is yet one more flagrant

breach of all the proper conventions of war."

 

Iraqi denial: Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf says

that Mr Blair has "lied to the public" about the soldiers. "We haven't

executed anyone."

 

Later reports:: The British prime minister's spokesman later said that

there was no "absolute evidence" that the UK servicemen had been executed.

 

 

Chemical weapons find

 

On 27 March, George W Bush says that US forces have destroyed a camp in

northern Iraq belonging to Ansar al-Islam. Washington's assertion that

there was a link between Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and the

Baghdad regime rest mainly on the alleged links between Ansar al-Islam and

al-Qaeda. US officials have consistently maintained that the discovery of

the poison ricin in London was linked to this camp. UK officials have

denied this.

 

US account: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers

says on 30 March: "We attacked and now have gone in on the ground into the

site where Ansar al-Islam and al-Qaeda had been working on poisons. We

think that's probably where the ricin found in London came from."

 

Other reports: In London on 31 March two newspapers, the Mirror and the

Sun report that the American finds at the Ansar al-Islam site offers proof

that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The Sun argues that this

justifies the war against Iraq.

 

Later US account: On 1 April US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks says

coalition troops are yet to find any banned weapons in Iraq. Donald

Rumsfeld insists Iraqi weapons of mass destruction will be found in areas

in and around Baghdad and Tikrit.

 

 

Capture of Iraqi general

 

British account: On 30 March British forces involved in clashes in Basra

say they have captured an Iraqi general. UK Group Captain Al Lockwood says

the general is being asked to co-operate with UK forces in the planning

operations against Iraqi resistance in Basra.

 

Other reports: Qatari television network al-Jazeera interviews Lieutenant

General Walid Hamid Tawfiq, an Iraqi commander in southern Iraq. He

insists that no general has been taken prisoner by the British. UK

retraction: The UK Ministry of Defence retracts earlier claims on the

capture of a general. It is believed that a captured officer was mistaken

for a general.

 

 

Checkpoint deaths

 

Late on 31 March, US troops open fire on a civilian van that fails to stop

at a checkpoint. Seven Iraqi women and children are killed, according to

US officials.

 

US account: US officials say the driver of the car failed to stop after

warning shots were fired over the car and then at its engine. Soldiers

fired at the passenger cabin "as a last resort". US soldiers at

checkpoints were said to be jumpy after a suicide attack at a checkpoint

had killed four servicemen. Pentagon officials insist that the correct

procedures were followed, and that soldiers had acted in "the appropriate

way".

 

Other reports: William Branigin, a reporter with the Washington Post

embedded with the US Third Infantry, witnesses the shooting and has a

different account. He says that 10 people were killed, and no warning

shots were fired. He reports that after the shooting Captain Ronny

Johnson, the commander at the checkpoint, yelled at his platoon commander:

"You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning

shot soon enough!" US forces, according to William Branigin, offered the

survivors of the incident financial compensation.

 

 

Cluster bombs

 

Iraqi account: Officials in the Iraqi capital say that US forces have been

dropping cluster bombs on civilian areas in Iraq. First reports of the use

of cluster bombs in the war appear in the Western media on 3 April. Coalition denial: US and British officials deny the use of cluster

munitions. British military spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon said: "We are

not using cluster munitions, for obvious collateral damage reasons, in and

around Basra."

 

Later UK account: A military official in London tells BBC News Online: "We

have used them elsewhere." He said they were an effective weapon of

warfare, for example to target a convoy of military vehicles, but were

only used in the open far from built up areas. UK Defence Secretary Geoff

Hoon defends the use of cluster bombs in Iraq on 4 April, saying they are

legal and not using them would put British soldiers at greater risk.

[Soxfest]

Interesting APU

[1549]

Apu, this doesn't have much to do with that military article you posted, but I was looking at your avatar and was wondering if you eat at McDonalds, wear Nikes, watch ABC and CBS...or do you avoid those companies because they are 'corporate America' at it's largest

[LowerCaseRepublican]

Apu, this doesn't have much to do with that military article you posted, but I was looking at your avatar and was wondering if you eat at McDonalds, wear Nikes, watch ABC and CBS...or do you avoid those companies because they are 'corporate America' at it's largest

I don't eat at McDonald's. (Very easy to do after I read about their food preparation and labor practices in Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation"...and there is only one on campus and the food is very s***ty) I don't watch CBS or ABC. I usually only watch Adult Swim, SportsCenter, and baseball/hockey games on ESPN/2.

I have a pair of Merrells instead of Nikes and I am just about to buy a pair of new green shoes from this independent store.

 

I try my best to avoid companies with bad track records in labor/preparation, etc.

[1549]

Why avoid ABC, CBS? Actually now that I think about it, I don't watch much of them either, there tv shows are not very good.

[Rex Kickass]

Apu, Donald Rumsfeld is not in the military. It's been generals from the military who have been the most cautious and the most honest about what they are finding. You need to separate those who are responsible for the war and those whose job it is to fight it.

[1549]

Actually now that I think about it, Everybody Loves Raymond and Still Standing are funny on CBS, and I like Life According to Jim on ABC, both have good college sports coverage too...and both have the NFL

[LowerCaseRepublican]

Why avoid ABC, CBS?  Actually now that I think about it, I don't watch much of them either, there tv shows are not very good.

I avoid a lot of the main stations and don't watch TV all that often except for low budget cartoons and the White Sox. Too busy between classes, homework, reading, and activism to watch too much television.