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Invaders ‘Liberate’ Baghdad – Counting The Cost
Compiled By Selwyn Manning - Scoop Deputy Editor
SCOOP LINK – “The Americans "liberated" Baghdad yesterday, destroyed the centre of Saddam Hussein's quarter-century of brutal dictatorial power but brought behind them an army of looters who unleashed upon the ancient city a reign of pillage and anarchy. It was a day that began with shellfire and air strikes and blood-bloated hospitals and ended with the ritual destruction of the dictator's statues. The mobs shrieked their delight. Men who, for 25 years, had grovellingly obeyed Saddam's most humble secret policeman turned into giants, bellowing their hatred of the Iraqi leader as his vast and monstrous statues thundered to the ground.” – Robert Fisk for the Independent.
The United States is turning up its ‘liberator’ rhetoric with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying Saddam Hussein "is taking his rightful place" alongside Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.
Rumours flew about the fate of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday with reports that he was alive, wounded, dead, fleeing to Syria and hiding in the Russian Embassy in Baghdad.
The British mass media with reference to a source from the UK intelligence service have reported on Wednesday that obviously, Saddam Hussein was not in the building during the bombardments, but had left the bunker before the coalition troops launched the attack. Two people were killed as a result of a missile strike on the bunker.
A-10 Warthog shot down today over Baghdad.
In Absence: Yes absent is the United States’ explanation for its military having not yet discovered Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Ironic that the USA’s cluster bombs and DU dipped projectiles, which must surely constitute definition by that title, so far are the only WMDs to be seen inside Iraq.
Meanwhile Iraq's UN ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri said today "the game is over, and I hope peace will prevail." His comments to reporters in New York were the first admission by an Iraqi official that Saddam's forces had been overwhelmed.
There was continued combat in cities to the north where Iraqi government troops were under attack from U.S. and British warplanes.
U.S. and British airstrikes pounded Iraqi forces Wednesday in the northern city of Tikrit, the next focus of the war now that U.S. troops have largely secured Baghdad. Special operations forces also were "softening...
U.S. Marines swept through a northeastern district of Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday, blasting forces still loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with heavy artillery, mortars and machinegun fire.
As Baghdad fell from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's control, covert CIA and military teams and surveillance devices set up to monitor top Iraqi officials reported that nearly all of them had disappeared, The Washington Post reported...
Iraqi-Americans celebrating Baghdad's fall to U.S. troops on Wednesday protested the presence of reporters from al-Jazeera, accusing the Arab news channel of siding with Saddam Hussein's deposed government.
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