Re: Fighting terrorism with blurry vision; the latest teachings of Paul Wolfowitz, or, would the real terrorist please stand up clearly

[k hanly <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wolfowitz is just making an official justification for what has been a
long-standing practice of US occupiers. The cases of bombing in Afghansitan
based on "murky" data are legion. Afterwards the typical response is to
report that the bombing is being investigated even after it is clear that
innocent people were killed. In a few rare instances there was some
compensation but usually the events just disappear off the media radar.
    Here is a recent example from Iraq. Where is the media outrage at
innocents killed? There is no talk of anyone being disciplined or charged.
No apology. No compensation. Just kill innocent people destroy property and
take off. Of course some US killings of innocents are not really accidental
they are targetted because they are in the headquarters of politically
incorrect media stations such as AlJezeera. The same thing happened in the
attack upon Yugoslavia.


Cheers, Ken Hanly

Bloody U.S. Raid in Baghdad Leaves Iraqis Furious
Mon July 28, 2003 07:02 AM ET




By Cynthia Johnston
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Caked pools of blood and a bullet hole in the window of
Baghdad's al-Sa'ah restaurant are the only remaining signs of a U.S. raid
that killed five Iraqi civilians as they unwittingly drove into a firestorm.

Furious residents of the upscale Mansur district accuse U.S. soldiers of
firing indiscriminately at passing cars Sunday as colleagues raided a villa
in a vain search for Saddam Hussein.

"The cars came down the road. They didn't know the Americans were here. They
were normal civilians and wanted to go home," one witness told Reuters
Monday as he stood in the courtyard of the Sa'ah restaurant.

"They (U.S. soldiers) opened fire right away."

A U.S. military spokesman said the raid was conducted by Task Force 20, a
special team set up to hunt Saddam and his key aides, but gave no other
details.

A soldier at a nearby hospital said the bodies of five people had been
brought in from the scene of the raid, including a boy in his early teens.

Monday morning not a soldier was in sight in Mansur, and four burned or
bullet-riddled cars had been taken away.

"All these things are making people hate the Americans," said Muhammad, a
Mansur resident.

"In the beginning, all the Iraqi people welcomed the Americans, but now the
Americans have built a wall between themselves and the Iraqi people."

NO WARNING

Residents who witnessed the shooting said about 75 U.S. soldiers poured into
the area in the early evening, blocking off the main street but failing to
prevent innocent motorists straying into the fire zone from quiet side
streets.

"They need to have barbed wire up so that people know there is an
operation," one witness said. "This is a residential area. They need to take
care of the civilians. There are kids here."

Another witness, who gave his name as Abbas, said he had turned away cars in
a street near the restaurant. But smaller streets remained open. Witnesses
said soldiers opened fire from atop a Humvee armored vehicle at the first
car that neared their position. Moments later they raked a second car with
gunfire as well.

"It was indiscriminate firing," one witness said as others nodded in
agreement and pointed out a bullet hole in the window of the restaurant.

Flying bullets also hit the gas tank of a parked car, setting it and another
car ablaze. In minutes, the shooting was over and the soldiers withdrew.

"They just left," one resident said. "Then the Iraqi firemen came to put out
the fires."

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jurriaan Bendien" <bendien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 5:52 PM
Subject: Fighting terrorism with blurry vision; the latest teachings of Paul
Wolfowitz, or, would the real terrorist please stand up clearly


> In the armed forces, they teach you to handle a gun, and identify your
> target carefully, before taking aim and shooting, but now Wolfowitz has a
> new idea...
>
> Posted on Mon, Jul. 28, 2003
> Wolfowitz: U.S. Must Act on 'Murky' Info
>
> WILLIAM C. MANN
> Associated Press
>
> WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's second-ranking official says the United States
> must be prepared to act on less-than-perfect intelligence in a world where
> the main threat is terror, even though information about terrorism is
> inherently murky.
> "If you wait until the terrorism picture is clear, you're going to wait
> until after something terrible has happened," Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul
> Wolfowitz said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
>
> "And we went to war, and I believe we are still fighting terrorists and
> terrorist supporters in Iraq, in a battle that will make this country
safer
> in the future from terrorism." Making the rounds of television talk show,
> Wolfowitz told "Fox News Sunday" that "Iraq now is the central battle in
the
> war on terrorism." He similarly linked the U.S.-led invasion and its
> aftermath to President Bush's war on terror. At the same time, he
emphasized
> that intelligence dealing with terrorists is intrinsically "murky."
>
> On CBS' "Face the Nation," Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat
on
> the Armed Services Committee, said he was struck by Wolfowitz's use of the
> word. "Boy, it sure didn't sound murky before the war," Levin said. "There
> were clear connections, we were told, between al-Qaida (terrorists) and
> Iraq. There was no murkiness, no nuance, no uncertainty about it at all.
...
> That's the way it was presented to the American people."
>
> http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/6400489.htm
>
> For biographical notes on Wolfowitz, see the US Department of Defence
> http://www.defenselink.mil/bios/depsecdef_bio.html