Iraq becomes war zone as election looms

[leftchick]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Breaking-News/Iraq-becomes-war-zone-as-election-looms/2004/12/20/1103391695742.html?oneclick=true

~snip~

Meanwhile, ousted dictator Saddam Hussein has made a jail cell plea for Iraqis to unite against the US occupation and the election which he claimed was bent on dividing Iraq along religious lines, his lawyers have said.

The deadly strikes highlight the apparent ability of the militants to launch attacks almost at will, despite confident assessments by US military commanders that they had regained the initiative after last month's campaign against militants in Fallujah.

Families of victims of the twin attacks in Najaf and Karbala prepared for multiple funerals in line with Islamic tradition to bury the dead within one day.

Police and Iraqi National Guard troops set up checkpoints throughout Najaf and additional security personnel checked identity documents of people in the city. Roads leading to the city's holy Imam Ali shrine were blocked, apparently out of fear of repeat attacks.

[truthisfreedom]

1. how the hell is saddam making pleas from his jail cell through his lawyers

anyway? wouldn't that simply result in him being denied access to any of those lawyers? it seems to me that a POW shouldn't be in the position of gaining international media attention in furthering the killing of US forces. this is just bizarre.

[dbt]

2. Maybe it suits bu$hco's purposes?

Ya gotta look at that angle on everything these days.

:freak:
dbt

[leftchick]

4. that was my thought as well....

pulling saddam out again as a 'bad, bad man' always works on those faux news watchers.

[HuffleClaw]

5. wouldn't it give the administration one more thing to blame ?

... for when these 'elections' fall apart? so far, they've got syria and iran to blame. oh, and the UN.

[TahitiNut]

11. Shouldn't the defense have equal access to the public as the prosecution?

If the prosecution glories in trying Saddam in the "court of public opinion," doesn't the principle of equity afford him access as well?

[Cooley Hurd]

3. "Iraq becomes war zone as election looms?"

What was it before? "Great Adventure?":crazy:

[leftchick]

6. Photo of Najaf devastation....

Iraqi men view the destruction from Sunday's powerful car bomb attack in the holy city of Najaf December 20, 2004. Suicide car bombers struck Iraq (news - web sites)'s two main Shi'ite holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala on Sunday, killing at least 62 people and wounding nearly 130, in coordinated attacks six weeks before a historic election. REUTERS/Ali Abu Shish

[July]

7. BECOMES a war zone? What was it before now? nt

[Earth_First]

10. Took the words right out of my mouth...

becomes?

[0007]

8. Saddam calling out to his county to defend it while...

Al-Zarqawi is everywhere these days it appears, striking in Mosul, Baghdad, Samarra, Najaf, Baquba, Ramadi and Falluja. What a man!!

Accordingly, the goal in creating a foreign Islamist face for the violence taking place in Iraq is to get the Iraqi populace to turn away from Iyad Allawi and the US military as a source of stability, and endorse the return of the Baathists (under a new guise, to be sure), who would then deal with the Islamists by shutting down an operation the Mukhabarat thinks they control.

It seems a critical element of this resistance was to generate chaos and anarchy that would destabilize any US-appointed Iraqi government

[daleo]

9. Iraq becomes a war zone

Moon becomes a lifeless planet.
Pacific Ocean becomes a large body of water.
Antarctica becomes an ice covered continent.
Super Bowl becomes a football game.

And so on.

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

12. FREEDOM is on the march....

But unfortunately, it marched right past an IED and was blown to smithereens.