that money for weapons 'exchange" program is going GREA

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that money for weapons 'exchange" program is going GREA

Postby DawnC71 » Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:17 pm

Seems like maybe we should also offer some sort of incentive for people to NOT blow themselves up as well. We are already handing out anywhere for a couople hundred to just over a thousand bucks to people turning in wepons....depending on type, caliber, etc....so why not counter the stipend paid by Saudi Arabia to those Palestinian suicided bombers by employing some sort of stipend program to families who make it through the year without having anyone in their family strap a bomb on their back and go virgin hunting....Maybe they could do it as some kind of tax incentive or something.



Insurgents penetrate Baghdad’s Green Zone
4 American civilians among 10 dead; 4 U.S. soldiers also killed

John Moore / AP

The Associated Press
Updated: 3:35 p.m. ET Oct. 14, 2004BAGHDAD, Iraq -

Suicide attackers penetrated Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone and detonated explosives at a market and a popular cafe Thursday, killing 10 people, including four American civilians, in the first bombings inside the compound housing the U.S. and Iraqi government headquarters.

Separately, four U.S. soldiers died in multiple attacks in Baghdad and Ramadi on Thursday, the U.S. military said.

A top Iraqi official said the attacks inside the Green Zone appeared to have been suicide bombings. They were a bold assault on the heart of the U.S.-Iraqi leadership of the country and a district seen as one of the few relatively safe refuges for Americans in the capital.


The four Americans killed were employees of the private U.S. security firm DynCorp, two U.S. officials said Thursday.

Two State Department officials were injured, neither critically, along with another employee of the company, in a blast in a vendor's alley near the U.S. Embassy annex, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Several Americans were injured.

Six Iraqis were killed in a second blast in a cafe.

Al-Zarqawi group claims attacks
The militant group of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the blasts, saying they were “martyrdom,” or suicide, attacks. The claim could not be confirmed.

“By the grace of God, two lions of the ’Martyrdom Brigade’ affiliated with the military wing of Tawhid and Jihad were successful in entering the base of the American embassy inside the Green Zone in the capital Baghdad,” the statement said, referring to al-Zarqawi’s group.

Witnesses said two men, each carrying a backpack but not required ID badges, entered the Green Zone Cafe full of Americans and other patrons at around lunchtime, drank tea and talked to each other for nearly half an hour — one of them appearing to reassure his more nervous colleague.

One of them then left and soon after an explosion was heard. Then the man who remained in the cafe detonated his bomb moments later, ripping through the building, said an Iraqi vendor who was in the cafe at the time.

Also Thursday, two U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad, one in a roadside bombing and the second in a shooting, the military said.

Two U.S. soldiers also died in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, when their Humvee was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and caught on fire, according to a U.S. military spokesman at Camp Ramadi. Their convoy had been on a combat mission, searching the city for weapons caches.

As of Wednesday, 1,081 U.S. servicemen had been killed in Iraq since March 2003, according to a Defense Department count.


Fears over security
The attacks raised fears over security in the compound and underscored militants’ ability to strike in the capital even as U.S.-Iraqi forces are carrying out a new offensive to suppress them in other parts of the country ahead of January elections.

The fact that insurgents were able to penetrate the Green Zone could present a serious setback to the Bush administration's campaign to pacify postwar Iraq.

Only Wednesday night, in a speech in Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said "we are facing a difficult time in Iraq." He called the insurgents monsters but expressed confidence the U.S.-led coalition would gradually gain the upper hand.

Overall, Powell spoke optimistically of President Bush's declared global war against terror. "Every day terrorists have fewer places to hide," he said.

Following Thursday's bombings, security arrangements were put under immediate review but it is "much too early to start speculating" on whether they would be overhauled, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

The Green Zone is a four square-mile district of central Baghdad surrounded by barricades and checkpoints that houses the Iraqi government, the U.S. Embassy, and residences, restaurants and entertainment facilities for the hundreds of Americans working there. It is also home to some 10,000 Iraqis, who need IDs to move in and out of the area.

Elsewhere, one U.S. soldier was killed in central Baghdad Thursday when his patrol came under attack while another soldier died when a roadside bomb exploded in the eastern part of the city, the U.S. command said Thursday.

The patrol was hit by small arms fire at about 1:45 p.m. local time, a statement said.

In the earlier bomb attack at 11:25 a.m. two other soldiers were also wounded, a military statement said. No further details were released about the attack. The two injured were evacuated to a military medical facility.

The names of the two soldiers killed were being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Both incidents are under investigation.

As of Wednesday, 1,081 members of the U.S. military had died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

Pre-Ramadan raids
In the Sunni stronghold of Ramadi, U.S. forces traded fire with insurgents, officials said Thursday, while troops detained 10 people, including two suspected insurgent leaders, in a sweep of Baqouba.

The gunfire in Ramadi subsided Thursday morning and U.S. forces withdrew from the city center, residents said. The military had no immediate comment on the clashes. City hospital officials said eight people in all were killed and 17 were wounded.

U.S. troops had swept into the city early Wednesday, sealing off key streets, taking position on the rooftops and searching buildings, residents said. Warplanes and helicopters hovered overhead.

Rebels fought back with gunfire and mortar blasts. Three mortars, apparently aimed at city hall, slammed into a nearby house, killing two people and wounding four, including women and children, said Dr. Alaa al-Aani of Ramadi General Hospital.

The operations in Ramadi appeared to be part of a U.S. campaign to step up pressure on Sunni insurgents ahead of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins Friday. Last year the start of Ramadan saw a significant increase in insurgent attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere.

Some extremists believe they earn a special place in paradise if they die in a jihad, or holy war, during Ramadan. The monthlong holiday of fasting celebrates the time when Muslims believe God revealed their holy book — the Quran — to the Prophet Muhammad.

In other developments:

A female Iraqi television journalist was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad on Thursday, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said. Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman said the reporter was fatally shot by three assailants driving by in an Opel car around 8:00 am. The journalist was identified as Zeina Mahmoud, who was working for Kurdish-run Al-Hurriya TV, said the station’s director Nawrooz Mohammed.
Gunmen killed two new Iraqi Army officers in a morning drive-by shooting in Baqouba, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said. Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman said the two were shot as they were driving to work about 7:30 a.m. He gave no further details. The two men had served in the Iraqi army during Saddam Hussein’s regime, the official said.
Hospital officials said a car bomb exploded next to a U.S. convoy west of the capital Wednesday, killing at least one Iraqi and wounding eight.
Passion is necessity. It is not diligence, or simply being committed to a goal. Passion consumes you while you chase down your goal. Passion should always be your natural state of mind for it is what sparks momentum and sets the pace.
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Postby Prodigal Son » Thu Oct 14, 2004 9:23 pm

I thought money for guns schemes were:

A. Never worked

B. Was godless, pinko commie anti-americanism
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Postby DawnC71 » Thu Oct 14, 2004 9:39 pm

nah nah nah......if it Americans buying weapons of "insurgents" then it is a gold brick inlaid on the road to democracy!!!
Never mind that we just throw people in jail in this country if they have a weapon they are not supposed to have....So a hint for all of you with illegal assault weapons, before you get caught with it here, go to Iraq and sell it!!! Save yourself all that pesky probation and/or prison time and make a few bucks while you are at it!

Cheers,
dawn
Passion is necessity. It is not diligence, or simply being committed to a goal. Passion consumes you while you chase down your goal. Passion should always be your natural state of mind for it is what sparks momentum and sets the pace.
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