At least 31 dead, 71 hurt in Baghdad blasts
November 10th, 2008 . by TexasFredAt least 31 dead, 71 hurt in Baghdad blasts
BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck Monday in a crowd that had gathered where an explosion moments earlier damaged a bus full of schoolgirls, with both blasts killing at least 31 people and wounding 71 others, officials said.
Also Monday, a woman suicide bomber attacked a security checkpoint in downtown Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing five people including a local leader of Sunni group opposed to al-Qaeda, police said. Fifteen other people were wounded in that explosion.
The twin Baghdad blasts — the deadliest in the city in months — occurred moments apart during the morning rush hour in the mostly Shiite Kasrah section of the Azamiyah district in the northern part of the Iraqi capital.
Police said the first explosion damaged a minibus carrying young girls to school. The second happened when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in the middle of a crowd that had gathered around the vehicle.
Police officials giving the toll were unclear how many died in each blast.
Full Story Here:
At least 31 dead, 71 hurt in Baghdad blasts
Iraq is a place the U.S.A. NEVER needed to go, Iraq was the downfall of George W. Bush and the Republican party, the invasion itself, the way this debacle was prosecuted, the aftermath, ALL of it. Saddam was an evil man, his death was NO loss to the world but the Bush administration took us into a BS war that has all but bankrupted the U.S.A., and for nothing!!
The are no WMDs, there never were any WMDs, Bush had a bad case of wanting to vindicate himself in *Daddies* eyes, he wanted to *get* that bad man Saddam, because Saddam had threatened Daddy, that was it, plain and simple, Iraq was the temper tantrum of an impertinent child that was trying to make his Daddy happy! And in doing so, he removed valuable, and much needed troops and resources from Afghanistan, and now we are having to go back and do that one over again, great war planning there GW!
My Son has served a year in Iraq, on patrol on the route to BIA, Route Irish, and his National Guard group is already tasked to go back in 2012, this is one promise I hope Obama CAN keep, our guys OUT of Iraq, and then perhaps we can concentrate on the REAL war on terror, where that war REALLY was, Afghanistan and Pakistan, not in Iraq, where, until WE went there and deposed Saddam, it NEVER was.
George W. Bush is terribly concerned about the legacy he is leaving behind, well, he has built his own legacy, the Moron in Chief will go down as the worst president the USA has ever had, bar none, at least so far.
But you know, there IS a bright side to this story, NO U.S. military personnel were killed, and that is a good thing, our troops have already made too many sacrifices in a place they NEVER should have been.
Iraq has descended into nothing but a civil war, and there is nothing *civil* about it. And it WILL continue until the *infidel* is out and some Muslim strongman is ruling with an iron fist, and administering death under Sharia law, and administering it in great numbers!
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CIA’s final report: No WMD found in Iraq
WASHINGTON - In his final word, the CIA’s top weapons inspector in Iraq said Monday that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has “gone as far as feasible” and has found nothing, closing an investigation into the purported programs of Saddam Hussein that were used to justify the 2003 invasion.
“After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted,” wrote Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, in an addendum to the final report he issued last fall.
“As matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible.”
In 92 pages posted online Monday evening, Duelfer provides a final look at an investigation that occupied over 1,000 military and civilian translators, weapons specialists and other experts at its peak. His latest addenda conclude a roughly 1,500-page report released last fall.
On Monday, Duelfer said there is no purpose in keeping many of the detainees who are in custody because of their knowledge on Iraq’s weapons, although he did not provide any details about the current number. A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ultimate decision on their release will be made by the Iraqi authorities.
Warnings about Saddam’s experts
The survey group also provided warnings.
The addenda conclude that Saddam’s programs created a pool of experts now available to develop and produce weapons and many will be seeking work. While most will probably turn to the “benign civil sector,” the danger remains that “hostile foreign governments, terrorists or insurgents may seek Iraqi expertise.”
“Because a single individual can advance certain WMD activities, it remains an important concern,” one addendum said.
More Here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7634313/
Bush admits no WMDs found, defends Iraq invasion
OAK RIDGE — President Bush delivered a 35-minute talk today that defended the administration’s campaign against terror in the Mideast and elsewhere.
“Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq,” he said.
The president cited positive developments in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. relationship with Pakistan.
After each major point in his speech, Bush came back with the same refrain: “The American people are safer.”
The president said we remain a nation at war and there would be tough times ahead. He noted the difficult situations in North Korea and Iraq.
But he also cited positive examples, such as the United States has 60 nations supporting it on non-proliferation issues, 30 nations supporting it in Iraq and 40 in Afghanistan.
“We have duties and there will be difficult times ahead,” he said.
The United States will not forget Sept. 11, 2001, he said.
“We will not allow our enemies to forget it either,” Bush said.
More Here:
http://www.csm.ornl.gov/PR/PR2004/NS-07-12-04.html
Official: U.S. calls off search for Iraqi WMDs
WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. inspectors have ended their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in recent weeks, a U.S. intelligence official told CNN.
The United States is taking steps to determine how it received erroneous intelligence that deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was developing and stockpiling nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday.
“Our friends and allies had the same intelligence that we had when it came to Saddam Hussein,” he said. “Now we need to continue to move forward to find out what went wrong and to correct those flaws.
“That’s exactly what the independent commission the president appointed is going to do,” McClellan said. “They’re going to make recommendations, and the president is committed to acting on those recommendations.”
At the same time, he said, President Bush stands by the decision to invade Iraq.
“We had a regime that had a history of using weapons of mass destruction and had a history of defying the international community and had a history of ties to terrorist organizations in Iraq,” he said. “We had the attacks on September 11 [2001], that taught us we must confront threats before it’s too late.
“That’s what the president’s committed to doing,” he said. “Because this is about making America more secure.”
More Here:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/12/wmd.search/
U.N.: Iraq had no WMD after 1994
UNITED NATIONS — A report from U.N. weapons inspectors to be released today says they now believe there were no weapons of mass destruction of any significance in Iraq after 1994, according to two U.N. diplomats who have seen the document.
The historical review of inspections in Iraq is the first outside study to confirm the recent conclusion by David Kay, the former U.S. chief inspector, that Iraq had no banned weapons before last year’s U.S-led invasion. It also goes further than prewar U.N. reports, which said no weapons had been found but noted that Iraq had not fully accounted for weapons it was known to have had at the end of the Gulf War in 1991.
The report, to be outlined to the U.N. Security Council as early as Friday, is based on information gathered over more than seven years of U.N. inspections in Iraq before the 2003 war, plus postwar findings discussed publicly by Kay.
Kay reported in October that his team found “dozens of WMD-related program activities” that Iraq was required to reveal to U.N. inspectors but did not. However, he said he found no actual WMDs.
The study, a quarterly report on Iraq from U.N. inspectors, notes that the U.S. teams’ inability to find any weapons after the war mirrors the experience of U.N. inspectors who searched there from November 2002 until March 2003.
Many Bush administration officials were harshly critical of the U.N. inspection efforts in the months before the war. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in August 2002 that inspections “will be a sham.”
The Bush administration also pointedly declined U.N. offers to help in the postwar weapons hunt, preferring instead to use U.S. inspectors and specialists from other coalition countries such as Britain and Australia.
But U.N. reports submitted to the Security Council before the war by Hans Blix, former chief U.N. arms inspector, and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency, have been largely validated by U.S. weapons teams. The common findings:
Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was dormant.
More Here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-03-02-un-wmd_x.htm
And YES, I DO know about the *yellow cake*… See the last line of the above comment, “Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was dormant.” and the last paragraph of this comment, “While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called “dirty bomb” — a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material — it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast.”…
Secret U.S. mission hauls uranium from Iraq
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
What’s now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad — using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.
“Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq,” said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called “dirty bomb” — a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material — it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.
More Here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25546334/
Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, unicorns and WMDs…
And here’s another little bit of Intel for you, Isaac, YES, there were some 155mm howitzer rounds found that had warheads containing sarin…
1. It was SO depleted, pre 1991 mfg, that it was practically inert, you could pour it directly on the skin with NO reaction.
2. A 155mm howitzer round is NOT a WMD that can threaten the USA and is for goddamned sure NO reason to go to war…
Weight: 10,500 lbs or less
Range: 30-40 km (assisted), 22.5-30 km (unassisted)
Range Precision PE: .35% (assisted), .30% (unassisted) of range
Deflection Precision PE: 1 mil (low angle), 2 mils (high angle)
Accuracy: 200-50 meters CEP, at 25 km w/ 20 km Met separation.
Minimum Range: 3.7-2.7 km high angle
Maximum Rate of Fire: 5-8 rds/min for NLT 2 minutes
The sarin projectiles that Saddam had were NO danger to the USA, for a WMD to be a THREAT to the USA it must have a delivery system, the ragheads made WMDs out of 4 airliners on Sept 11, 2001, and those raghead sons a bitches were Saudis, NOT Iraqis, they were fucking Saudis, the same assholes that Bush sucks up to, takes into the Texas White House, holds their hand, kisses their cheeks, THEY were the perpetrators of 9-11…
The hunt for WMDs in Iraq was nothing more than Bush the Moron being Bush the MORON!!
Isaac, I would as soon you didn’t even try to post here again, you are in WAY the hell over your head…
No Americans killed, that is the best part of this one!