Experts Suggest Outsiders In Blast

[stickdog]

http://www.military.com/NewsContent?file=FL_blast_0820

"The second effective use of a car bomb in less than two weeks suggests at least some foreign involvement," said political risk analyst Jon Alterman, Middle East director of the Washington-based CSIS.

Iraqis, not coalition forces, bore the brunt of other attacks over the past two weeks as well: a bomb that cut off the water supply to most of Baghdad on Sunday and Monday, mysterious fires that shut down the country's export pipelines days after Iraq's economic lifeblood oil began flowing to into Turkey. The pipeline explosion is costing the Iraqi people $7 million a day, according to L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq.

Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on radical Islam at Egypt's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said Iraqis who have been staging guerrilla attacks against U.S. forces "have no problems with the U.N."

After Tuesday's bombing, the Arab television station Al-Jazeera reported that an anti-U.S. group in Iraq, the Iraqi Islamic National Resistance Movement, released a statement condemning the attack and saying no Iraqis would have attacked the United Nations.

[stickdog]

1. Latest terrorist attacks

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~1580972,00.html

One military affairs expert said that even within the pretzel logic of terrorism, the attack could backfire on those who planned it.

"The attacks on the oil pipelines and the water are in some ways stupid, because if the United States plays it right, the government can run that back against these elements pretty effectively as hurting the average person," said Richard H. Shultz, director of the international security studies program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, in Medford, Mass.

He said Tuesday's bombing also could quiet some critics of U.S. policy.

"In hitting the United Nations, it could put into a rather tough position those in the U.N. who might have opposed what the United States is doing in Iraq, and even opposed our entry into the war to begin with," he said.

[alaine]

3. Do you ever sleep?

smile.

[lanlady]

8. the operative words here are:

"if the United States plays it right."

Unfortunately for the Pentagon, there is no Faux News to spread around propaganda. Ah, but we DO have plenty of posters of Saddam in Elvis and Zsa Zsa costumes.

Pardon me if I'm rather skeptical of the US getting anything right in Iraq.

[alaine]

2. Thank you so much for posting this

It did not make sense to me either.

[stickdog]

4. Ruthless and well-planned attack is typical of al-Qa'eda

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/20/wirq220.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/08/20/ixnewstop.html

Yesterday's explosion against a high-profile target bore the hallmarks of al-Qa'eda which has a tradition of single big-hit bombings that make international headlines. It favours the use of the truck bomb - one is believed to have been used yesterday - and is indifferent to casualties among fellow Muslims.

Mustafa Alani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said: "This is a similar attack to the one on the Jordanian embassy 10 days ago and is not an amateur job."

"To assemble this sort of bomb, it must be a well-organised group with a plentiful supply of explosives."

[hang a left]

38. Like the good ol

U S of A

[stickdog]

5. The bloodiest blow yet

http://www.dailyherald.com/news_story.asp?intid=3785347

There are a variety of groups believed to be operating in Iraq, including supporters of the ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, and no one can know for certain who was involved in attacking the U.N. hotel.

But the nature and targets of the recent attacks, which hurt Iraqis and humanitarian workers, don't seem to fit with the ideology of nationalist Iraqi resistance groups who seem more focused on attacking U.S. forces.

Most of those killed in Tuesday's bombing were Iraqis and U.N. officials. It was similar to the Aug. 7 bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad that killed 19 people - all Iraqis. The bomb that blew up outside the U.N. building was twice as large as the one at the Jordanian embassy.

Both attacks bore the hallmarks of previous bombings by foreign terrorists like al-Qaida, blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Strikes blamed on Saddam Hussein loyalists and other homegrown guerrillas since the U.S. coalition ousted Hussein have been on a much smaller scale and have not involved suicide attackers.

[cspiguy]

6. The UN tried hard to keep Saddam in power

they were drunk on the Oil for Food revenue and, what the heck, they tolerate with smiles all the other tinhorn bastards running the rest of the undemocratic middle east. Salut!

[displacedtexan]

12. your handle is intriguing!

c spi guy
first name initial + first 3 letters of your last name + gender?
or
conservative spy guy?

[bowens43]

13. Huh?

The UN tried hard to stop the US from committing war crimes, unfortunately they failed. I guess you're not familiar with the roll the US has played over the last several decades supporting 'tinhorn bastards' in the middle east and around the world.

You sound a just a tad hypocritical. Personally , I trust the judgement UN more then I trust ANY individual government, especially the current iteration of the US government.

[radwriter0555]

24. That's right, the UN didn't seek to displace the leader of a country, so

that the US forces could invade, loot and pillage that country for its oil.

oh the horror?

The bush regime has caused far more mayhem, butality and deaths than hussein, that's for sure.

Shoulda left hussein alone. Turns out he didn't have any weapons after all.Bush lied and hussein told the truth, go figure. Why do you think the bush regime killed the sons? So they couldn't CONTINUE telling the truth.

We know how the bush regime operates. It's all REAL clear.

[Character Assassin]

39. That is simply ridiculous

The bush regime has caused far more mayhem, butality and deaths than hussein, that's for sure.

How, precisely, is that 'for sure'? Whether one agrees with out presence and actions there or not, we haven't even come close to the damage in lives lost that he did.

[glarius]

7. Paul Bremer on CNN right now suggesting it's tied to Al Qaeda

He's been on all the morning shows saying the attack in Baghdad is connected to Al Qaeda.... Bush & company are using this as a suggestion of proof that they were right to go to war with Iraq because Al Qaeda has a stronghold in Iraq!

[cspiguy]

10. WTF

:wtf:

[stickdog]

9. Security, credibility on the line for U.S.

http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/3719962p-3747334c.html

Mustapha Alani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies said the goal was to discredit the Americans as a force capable of protecting international organizations in Iraq, thus undermining the United States and creating doubts whether outsiders would be safe. "It's a very important attack because the U.N. cannot protect itself, nor can the Iraqi police protect them. At the end of the day, it is an American responsibility to protect organizations like that," he said.

Although the United States has sought to downplay the possibility of a long-term resistance, top U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer recently acknowledged the seriousness of the escalation. Even before Tuesday's attack, he said that the terrorism threat and the amount of sabotage worried him.

Bremer has said repeatedly that the only short-term defense against terror attacks is good intelligence. He will not say how many Western intelligence operatives are on the ground in Baghdad, but there has been a massive influx. However, they have limited local contacts and are essentially starting from scratch. That slows even the "short-term" solution.

In assessing the recent attacks, U.S. officials and terrorism experts point to several potential enemies of the occupation. Remnants of Saddam's regime are thought to be responsible for most of the grenade, mortar and bomb attacks on U.S. soldiers. The Aug. 7 attack on the Jordanian Embassy was more sophisticated. It used a car bomb to kill at least 20 people and wound at least 100 others. Officials suspect either highly trained former regime members such as secret police, military intelligence agents, or al-Qaida operatives or their surrogates.

[stickdog]

11. A chilling escalation

http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/3719895p-3747426c.html

Tuesday's blast left the cement truck in flames and a crater 5 feet deep and 15 feet wide, surrounded by mounds of debris, pieces of cars, glass and metal. American Blackhawk and Kiowa helicopters circled above, both as a show of force and then to ferry the most seriously injured to hospitals. Others were evacuated in a screeching parade of ambulances that continued hours after the blast. "There was a tremendous explosion, and I don't know what happened after that," Rafi Levon, a security guard at the U.N. facility, said later from a stretcher in the Al Wasiti hospital, where overworked physicians applied antiseptic fluid to his wounds and used tweezers to pull shards of glass from his body. Next to him lay Wasan Muafwaq, a 25-year-old worker at the cafeteria - a popular meeting place for U.N. diplomats, American military officers and journalists.

"I felt like I was going to be thrown out the window," she said, her hands swathed in bandages and gauze strips suturing the cuts on her face. Her relatives bemoaned the lack of security in occupied Iraq.

"We didn't care for Saddam, but at least it was secure then," said Muafwaq's cousin Mohammed Hassan, who rushed to the hospital.

U.N. officials said Vieira de Mello, a 55-year-old veteran trouble-shooter who was also the world body's human rights envoy, apparently survived the blast and even communicated by telephone with aides. Nearly four hours after the explosion, a crane was being brought in to attempt to lift a slab of concrete that lay atop Vieira de Mello's office.

[xchrom]

14. it's not that this will backfire

on the perps -- it may -- it also may not.
the iraqi in the street may feel increasingly threatened at all turns, blaming the u.s. for the current chaos. indeed who else is there to blame. it's also, i think, a stretch to think there are no iraqis who would lash out at the u.n. -- what this may signal is the iraqi resistance is joining forces with international terrorist groups and stepping up the sophistication of their attacks.

[stickdog]

15. Bombing in Iraq 'not an amateur job'

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-08-19-cover-usat_x.htm

Tuesday's suicide bombing at the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad looks more like the work of a sophisticated terror group — possibly from outside Iraq — than of just disgruntled Baath Party officials or Saddam Hussein loyalists angry at the dictator's overthrow, terror experts say. "This was not an amateur job," terror analyst Mustafa Alani of London's Royal United Service Institute says of Tuesday's bombing. "We are now entering a new stage of the Iraqi resistance movement: from random to well-planned attacks."

Both the U.N. and embassy bombings bear the hallmarks of a large, sophisticated organization: The targets were soft, or not heavily guarded sites, and the attackers used large, relatively difficult-to-build bombs. Tuesday's bombing, most witnesses said, appeared to be a suicide attack, which also makes it look more like the work of an international group with zealous followers than of locals, experts say. They do not rule out the possibility, however, that the attacks were done by Iraqis associated with, or inspired by, international terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, head of al-Qaeda.

"Most of the violence directed against the coalition had been the sort of thing that a single individual could do or someone trained in infantry could do," says terror analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a think tank based in Alexandria, Va.

The increasing number of attacks, Pike says, are beginning to fulfill some of the "worst case" scenarios that planners must have drawn up before the war. But "if you think this is bad, wait. It could get a lot worse," Pike says.

[stickdog]

16. Baghdad bomb seen as grave escalation

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/6571605.htm

"It's not just about more troops," Hoffman said. "It's a recognition that we are faced with perhaps a more resilient insurgency than we have imagined. We are now transitioning from opportunistic strikes to attacks that seem much more calculated and intentional."

"This is a war," Cordesman said. "We have watched people go from sniping to grenades to rocket-propelled grenades to mortars to suddenly larger bombs."

The bombing prompted fresh criticism by Democrats of the Bush administration's refusal to send more troops and to support a greater U.N. role in reconstruction.

The attack "should... explode the illusions of postwar progress and stability the Bush administration continues to cling to," said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Democratic presidential candidate. "To achieve victory and a lasting peace in Iraq, we must directly involve the United Nations and commit greater force, more resources and stronger leadership."

[teryang]

17. Arabs abhor a vacuum

The alleged inability or disinclination of indigeneous Iraqis to attack the UN involves a complete misapprehension of the resistance strategy from the beginning. It is a scorched earth policy.

The destruction of any semblance of government administration, namely the basics, order and the distribution of water, power, food and fuel, insures a lack of legitimacy for the purported rulers from the Iraqi MIDDLE CLASS and a devolution of power to rebels, and guerillas. The provisional government and its "quisling" proxy is in a total failure mode. This is based on traditional analysis of Arab political ruling patterns in the absence of strong/legitimate sources of centralized power. Under almost any circumstances it is virtually impossible for a non Arab power to impose legitimate political rule. But in the complete failure to provide essential government functions it is impossible. Honest "experts" will admit this but few do. Even those who come close to admitting it use euphemisms and say it will take years/ decades.

The immigration of outside guerilla fighters is also a traditional Islamic pattern in a power struggle. It will be the faction or sect which does the most to rid the center of the Arab world of the invaders who inherit the mantle of legitimacy.

[0007]

35. Very well said

"It is virtually impossible for a non Arab power to impose legitimate political rule." So right you are my friend. History has proven that it is beyond the word "virtually" - no one, not one country ever in the History of the World has imposed politcal rule over an Arab Nation, ever.

Pets have been made out of Turkey and Saudi Arabia. But even that was for a dwarfish period of time.

[alaine]

18. Two quotes:

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way" F.D.R.

"These men are not incompetent or stupid. They are crafty and brilliant. Consistency has never been a mark of stupidity. If they were merely stupid, they would occasionally make a mistake in our favor." James Forrestal

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. So is al Qaeda

still a subsidiary of the CIA?

Seems like al Qaeda is always right on cue with the next distraction that will further US interests.

[Chico Man]

20. This was not a car bomb.. it was a CEMENT TRUCK BOMB!

A cement truck filled with explosives?!?!? Who has the expertise to carry out such an attack?

It is either Al Qaeda or the USA.

[stickdog]

21. Bombing rattles U.S. composure

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/6574495.htm

Even before Tuesday's attack, Washington was having trouble finding contributors, including troops for multinational divisions scheduled to relieve weary U.S. soldiers this year and next. Pakistan, India and Turkey, approached to play leading roles, have expressed reluctance.

One senior defense official expressed hope that a bombing condemned by Human Rights Watch as a war crime would inspire a fresh willingness in foreign capitals to back the U.S.-led rebuilding effort.

If recent months are a guide, a key factor will be whether the administration is prepared to share more authority over Iraq with other countries and the United Nations.

"The attack on the U.N., which has no enemies, is something we've never seen before," the official said. "So perhaps there'll be a recognition that there is an international responsibility to help protect Iraq."

[stickdog]

22. Attackers sending troubling message, terror experts say

http://www.statesman.com/asection/content/auto/epaper/editions/wednesday/news_f334d193539f224d008b.html

Retired Maj. Gen. William Nash, the first commander of U.S. forces in Bosnia and a veteran of Vietnam and the 1991 Persian Gulf War, said he wouldn't feel comfortable trying to stabilize Iraq with the present number of troops. "I think we're short somewhere between 12,000 and 25,000. They just continue to have problems covering the whole country," he said.

P.W. Singer, a Brookings Institution warfare expert and former Pentagon official, said the rising number and sophistication of attacks are worrisome.

"We've got not only low-level attacks on American soldiers on a daily basis -- a drive-by shooting here, a bombing there -- but we're also seeing a growth in the larger strikes that seem to bear more of a terrorist-type imprint: the bombing of the Jordanian Embassy, now the U.N. bombing.

"The worry is whether Iraq is becoming a magnet for foreign radicals and terrorists, who hope to cause more violence, more instability. That undercuts one of the rationales of the war, which is that you wanted to create a model for the Middle East of a stable and successful Iraq," Singer said.

[teryang]

23. Lebanon and the P/I conflict are the models

...for American dominance of Iraq. Anyone who didn't know that in advance of this stupid war of plunder is either lying or a fool.

[DoYouEverWonder]

28. The attack on the U.N., which has no enemies?

Huh? Guess they've never been to Free Republic?

BTW: Since when did al Qaeda become so considerate that for their debut in Iraq that they would avoid US targets and go after targets that help to further W's agenda.

Wouldn't surprise me if Cheney isn't having sleep overs with Osama in some bunker somewhere in WY.

[stickdog]

25. More questions over US military fatalities in Iraq

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/aug2003/fat-a20.shtml

On July 31, the US Army Surgeon General’s office announced that it had dispatched teams of medical experts to investigate the causes of a severe pneumonia-like condition afflicting American soldiers taking part in operations in Iraq. The military informed the press that two healthy young soldiers had died from alleged pneumonia and approximately 100 personnel had fallen seriously ill. Since then, there have been at least four more unusual deaths of US servicemen in Iraq for which no adequate explanation has been made public.

On August 6, the Defense Department announced that Specialist Zeferino Colunga, 20 years old and a member of the 2nd Armored Regiment, died at the Homburg University Hospital in Germany. He was evacuated from Iraq on August 4. The Department of Defense press release stated: “His death was unrelated to the recent cases of pneumonia in Southwest Asia.”

Specialist Levi Kinchen, a 21-year-old member of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, died on August 9 in Baghdad. The Department of Defense listed the cause of death as a “fellow soldier tried to wake Kinchen and noticed he was not breathing.” Private Matthew D. Bush, 20 years old and a member of the 10th Armored Regiment, was also found in his bed by a fellow soldier on August 9, who “noticed he was not breathing.”

Army Staff Sergeant Richard Eaton, 37, a veteran of US military intelligence, died on August 12. Military officials initially told Reuters that Eaton is “thought to have died from fluid in his lungs,” a condition known as a pulmonary edema. Pulmonary edema can be caused by lung injury inflicted by extreme heat, toxins or poisonous gas, a severe respiratory infection or an excess of body fluid such as occurs during kidney failure.

[stickdog]

26. Iraq pneumonia spate baffles US

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3126843.stm

Army medical experts have been struggling to explain why about 100 US troops, who served mostly in Iraq, have contracted pneumonia since March. The army has discounted biological weapons and Sars as possible reasons for the spate which has killed two soldiers and made 13 others seriously ill.

A team of medical investigators is due to arrive in Iraq within hours to try to identify any link between the cases. But military officials say pneumonia remains common - even among fit young people - although troops are being encouraged to take precautions to stay healthy.

SERIOUS PNEUMONIA CASES IN US FORCES IN IRAQ REGION
March: 2
April: 2
May: 1
June: 6
July: 4

The mother of Josh Neusche, 20, who died last month, told the UK's Sunday Telegraph newspaper that she believed her son had stumbled across something deadly while clearing rubble in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.

[Noordam]

27. This was a HOTEL,,,,,

Was there any other groups living or visiting there other than the UN

I got to believe the UN was not the target, unless the bomber was CIA paid.

[DoYouEverWonder]

29. The building was a hotel

but had been taken over by the UN to use for their headquarters.

[Chico Man]

30. A US congressional delegation was scheduled to be there yesterday

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=73498

[stickdog]

31. DISINFO ALERT

De Mello was scheduled to meet with the US Congressional delegation at the US compound, not the UN hotel.

From: http://www.komotv.com/stories/26708.htm

Cantwell, D-Wash., had been scheduled to meet Tuesday with the official, Sergio Vieira de Mello. The meeting was to have taken place a few hours before the bomb exploded at about 4:30 p.m. local time, Cantwell said.

The session was scrapped because the plane she and other lawmakers were traveling on was delayed on a flight from Jordan. The meeting was to have been at the military headquarters used by the U.S.-led forces in Iraq, about 5 miles from the U.N. site, Cantwell said.

After landing in Baghdad in mid-afternoon, Cantwell and the envoy tentatively set up a telephone call for about 6 p.m. local time. The call never took place.

At a teleconference Tuesday night from Kuwait, where she and other lawmakers were flown for their own safety, Cantwell speculated that Vieira de Mello might not have been killed if the meeting had taken place as scheduled. "It's hard to say," she said, adding that the envoy may have stayed at the military headquarters long enough to have avoided the attack.

[0007]

32. The site pulled the story

*

[stickdog]

33. Alternate link

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-08-19-terror-trademarks_x.htm

[alaine]

34. Amazing.

Wonder if it was the sentence "Iraqis who have been staging guerilla attacks against U.S. have no problems with the U.N."

These guys are amazing when it comes to covering their tracks and saving their spin from conflicting views.

[dArKeR]

36. I can't believe you guys fall for this bull! It's the spin to justify

what's going on in Iraq. 'Terrorist' and not Iraqi people who don't want the U.S. there. It's the same bull we heard before the illegal murdering started months ago. 'All Iraqis will welcome us with open arms.'

I believe and then heard some experts also say, this is not so likely because the local guerillas would not trust and accept a stranger into their movement for fear it would be a CIA setup.

These foreign Al Qaeda could not exists in Iraq without everyone knowing where and who they were. They have no place to live, no food, and couldn't possibly carry all the equipment they needed.

Who's Fighting Back in Iraq?
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2003/08/20030815_a_main.asp

[atreides1]

37. Associted Press Report In Yahoo News

In Yahoo News, an Associted Press story titled FBI:Iraq Bomb Made From
Old Munitions.

The FBI said that the bomb was made from 1,000 pounds of old munitions
to include a 500 pound bomb, all of the materiels from the Iraqi prewar arsenal, that required no "great degree of sophistication to
build."

FBI Special Agent Thomas Fuentes said that the bomb had been delivered
by a KAMAZ flatbed truck. Such trucks were made in the former Soviet Union.

"We believe it(the bomb)was made from existing military ordinance...I
cannot say that it required any great degree of sophistication or
expertise to create," Fuentes told the Associated Press.

Now ask yourselves a question, besides the former government of Iraq
who else would have access to Iraqi military ordinance.

[skip fox]

40. All part of a trap!

Peter Bergen on CNN this morning was AGAIN stating that Iraq has become a magnet for Jihadists throughout
the region, that al-Quaeda and other radical Islamic groups are pouring into Iraq as a "target rich"
environment. (Bergen, who is one of the mose credible sources on these issues has been saying this for
WEEKS and WEEKS! Only now, since the bombings of the Jordanian embassy and the UN, are American
officials noting the possiblity of the resistence consisting or more then disgruntled "Saddam loyalists.")

Bergen's contention this a.m. was that the UN bombing's purpose is to dissuade other Western governments to
aid US and Britian in policing and reconstructing Iraq. The interviewer did not ask him, but he was clearly
implying that the United States is viewed by the opposition as caught in a trap and al-Quaeda is trying to isolate
us in the country so they can kill Americans.

Thus . . . the quagmire is shortly upon us.

Meanwhile our government is still arguing about who is doing this, applauding ourselves on our resolve, and even
claiming
that the terror groups coming into Iraq is a "good thing" cause now we can take our War on Terror right to
them on their own front.

It sounds as though we're not only acting like the pig getting ready for its slaughter, but polishing the apple
they will stick inour mouth.