BAGHDAD (AP) - A U.S. attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, northwest of the capital Thursday - one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an American operation in recent months. The military said it was targeting senior leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq.

American forces have applied fierce and determined pressure on militants, especially al-Qaida in Iraq, since the full contingent of additional U.S. troops arrived June 15. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has recently confronted top American commander Gen. David Petraeus about what he sees as overly aggressive U.S. tactics that harm innocent civilians, according to Iraqi officials.

The military statement detailing Thursday’s air and ground assault said soldiers were acting on intelligence reports about an al-Qaida meeting in the Lake Tharthar region. The southern reaches of the big, man-made lake are about 50 miles northwest of the capital.

The American account said U.S. surveillance confirmed “activity consistent with the reports and supporting aircraft engaged the time-sensitive target.” The first air attack killed “four terrorists,” said the statement.

Full Story Here:
9 Children Killed in U.S. Raid in Iraq

Oh MY Gawd! The horror of it all, those murdering U.S. troops, how dare they attack those innocent children and peace loving goat herders just going about their daily toil to survive, the shame, the tragedy, the outrage of it all, we must have investigations, we have to know, was Blackwater USA in the area?? Can we blame it on them??

How did that sound?? Did I get the right inflection in there?? I’ve been practicing my feigned outrage and indignation for blog posts, and I think I got it down too…

Look, this was an air and ground assault in a somewhat urban area, people are going to die when things like this happen, THAT is a fact of life, I’m not trying to be a heartless bastard, I’m just a realist, I understand what happens in a confrontation like this, and I also understand that the insurgents will deliberately use civilians as human shields as well, and there is one other point I need to make here, the insurgents have been known to lie about the casualties suffered by civilians, it’s called propaganda, and they KNOW how to use it…

The only thing that surprises me about this story is that they didn’t say our guys blew up an orphanage along with a school for the deaf and blind that was holding a fund raiser to buy a new boiler so the little kiddies could stay warm this winter, and they were having a prayer service when WE attacked the innocent little tykes too…

OK, so I was being a a heartless bastard… Sue me…

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NEW YORK (AP) - The director of a group that monitors Islamic militant Web sites said the government leaked an Osama bin Laden video that was passed along to senior U.S. officials on condition that they keep it secret. She claimed the leak rendered certain intelligence-gathering capabilities ineffective.

The White House said it was not responsible for the leak, and a senior official said the director of national intelligence should investigate the allegation.

Rita Katz, who runs the Washington-based SITE Institute, said her decision to pass the video to an official in the Bush administration has had an impact on the ways that the group has for obtaining these videos before they are made available by al-Qaida.

“Due to the leak, sources that took years to develop are now ineffective,” Katz told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “A rare window into the world of al-Qaida has now been sealed shut.” She declined to elaborate on whether she meant people or methods.

In a story first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday, Katz said that on Sept. 7 she contacted White House counsel Fred Fielding, whom she had met before and trusted, and offered the video and a transcript, long before anyone else had a copy.

Katz said she wanted to give the government a head start on the video, which she expected al-Qaida to release in the coming hours. She said she did not expect payment for passing along the information.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the White House was not responsible for the leak and was “concerned about it.”

They are “concerned about it“, well, that’s comforting, I’d hate to think that the clowns running President Numbnutz administration didn’t care, and it’s even MORE reassuring to know that the White House isn’t responsible, many of us have known the White House wasn’t responsible for a long time, but for them to admit it, wow, that’s a huge move, and it thrills me to no end just knowing that our Intelligence community is still obviously populated by the same brainless asshats that were left in place when the Clinton debacle was rendering them useless eunuchs…

“When the White House refers information from an individual or a company, we refer that appropriately to the intelligence community. That’s what happened here,” she said.

Fran Townsend, assistant to the president for counterterrorism and homeland security, told reporters that she would leave any investigation to the director of national intelligence “to ascertain what’s the appropriate way of dealing with this and understanding what happened, so we can ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Ross Feinstein, spokesman for National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, said his office had not yet opened an official investigation, but was looking into the matter.

And you can bet the farm on this statement coming to fruition, there will be many fingers pointed and a couple of guys will fall on their swords and that will be the end of it, it WILL be buried or altered and made to look like it never happened in the 1st place, look at WHO we’re talking about, deception IS their job, dis-information is their shield and they are damn good at covering their own asses in the process…

Katz said Fielding referred her to Joel Bagnal, deputy assistant to the president for homeland security. Bagnal asked her to pass the transcript and video on to Michael Leiter at the National Counterterrorism Center. Katz said she also copied Fielding in on the e-mail.

About an hour and a half after sending her e-mail, she saw news outlets reporting that the government had obtained the video. And soon after that, a transcript appeared on the ABC News Web site and later on the Fox News site.

And there is your answer to the WHO of it all, more or less, either there is a direct leak in the Intelligence community or the MSM has figured out a way to view Intel emails and thus the ability to ferret stories from them directly, or the sender(s) may have done a Bcc and sent it themselves, and if they did, and it was an accident, that’s an accident out Intel people can’t afford to make, and if it was deliberate, well, the word treasonous pops into my mind for some reason…  

In any scenario, the perpetrator needs to be publicly hung by the neck until DEAD…

Full Story Here:
Group Accuses US of al-Qaida Video Leak

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BAGHDAD (AP) - Guards in a security convoy opened fire on a car at an intersection in central Baghdad on Tuesday, killing two Christian women, police said. Separately, suicide car bombings targeting a local police chief and a Sunni sheik working with U.S. forces killed at least 19 people.

Across Iraq, violence claimed the lives of at least 44 people.

Police and witnesses could not immediately give more details about the gunmen in Baghdad except to say they were in a convoy of four SUVs commonly used by private security companies and the Iraqi Ministry of Interior.

While there was no indication Blackwater USA was involved, the attack threatened to increase calls for limits on the security firms that mounted after the Sept. 16 shooting deaths of as many as 17 Iraqi civilians allegedly that company’s guards. The American security company said its employees were acting in self-defense.

Let’s talk about the desire of the Islamic insurgency to continue the war in Iraq regardless of what peace options the al-Maliki administration offers up, let’s talk about the Islamic insurgency murdering these 2 women and driving off to leave the Iraqi police to deal with it, let’s discuss these so-called convoy guards in masks…

‘But wait a minute TexasFred, the article says this was done by private security contractors’, and THAT is the intent of this story and what the hypocritical MSM would love for you to believe, because you see, a lot of people only read the 1st four paragraphs, that’s the meat of the story, and the MSM knows that fact, and let’s face it, a lot of people don’t have an attention span that lasts past 4 or 5 paragraphs, but you’re siting there thinking that I’m trying to deflect blame and make it look like the peaceful Muslims are again being blamed by me for something that private contractors did, right?? They may have been private contractors, but WHO were they contacted TO??

Well, here’s a little tidbit from several paragraphs into the story that should have been right there in the headline, it’s pretty relevant to the initial context of the story in my opinion…

Another policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution, said the guards were masked and wearing khaki uniforms. He said one of them left the vehicle and started to shoot at the car while another opened fire from the open back door of a separate SUV.

Our own MSM, and their biased reporting, the anti-American tilt that they give to so many stories, that and the tenacity of the insurgents, presents our forces, and the Iraqi government, with a set of circumstances that are going to be difficult to overcome, not impossible, but difficult…

Our media is the insurgents best friend, and I realize that here in the USA we have to adhere to the tenants of the constitution, free press, free speech and all that, but Iraq isn’t the USA, why in the hell does the MSM have such unfettered access to the entire operation?? Can’t it be at least reined in, if not stopped?? Isn’t there still such a thing as a news blackout?? Can’t reporters and so-called journalists be held to some degree of responsibility instead of being allowed to write their garbage with a tilt?? What the hell has happened to the TRUTH??

There have always been combat reporters but until recent times they were held to a high level of Operational Security, and most used good sense in their reporting, they brought you the story AND the facts and they did it in the 1st four paragraphs, they didn’t bury the most important line of the story half was down the page, and they didn’t give away any and all information available concerning ongoing operations…

Journalistic integrity, another casualty of the war on terror and global PCness…

Full Story Here:
2 Iraqi Women Killed by Convoy Guards

UPDATE: BAGHDAD (AP) - Guards working for an Australian-owned security company fired on a car as it approached their convoy Tuesday, killing two women before speeding away from the latest bloodshed blamed on the deadly mix of heavily armed protection details on Baghdad’s crowded streets.

Full Story Here:
Guards Fire on Car in Iraq, Kill 2 Women

Somehow, I don’t think we can believe one word that comes out of the MSM in Iraq, and what in the hell were the boys from Oz thinking?? And WHY were they wearing masks?? Or, were they??

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Iraqi officials say civilians are among the dead 

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces, backed by aircraft, killed at least 25 Shiite militia fighters north of Baghdad Friday in an operation targeting a cell accused of smuggling weapons from Iran, the military said.

Iraqi officials, however, said American bombs killed civilians who rushed to help those injured in the initial airstrike and said the only ones armed in the neighborhood were locals trying to organize themselves against al-Qaida.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed in roadside bombings Friday — two in southeastern Baghdad and one in Salahuddin province north of the capital, the military said. The military also reported the death of a soldier shot Thursday in a southern section of Baghdad used by al-Qaida cells.

The new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen met Iraq’s prime minister on a visit to Baghdad on Friday and urged Iraqis to seize the opportunity of improved security.

“I see a tremendous amount of change and progress since I was here before,” Mullen told reporters after discussions with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the Iraqi capital. “But we still face significant challenges in progress and security.”

Full Story Here:
U.S.: 25 killed in Iraq gunfight

OK, let me get this straight, U.S. forces got into a gunfight with hostile forces in Iraq, U.S. forces did exactly what they were supposed to do, they fired on and killed 25 of them, but according to Iraqi sources, “American bombs killed civilians who rushed to help those injured in the initial airstrike and said the only ones armed in the neighborhood were locals trying to organize themselves against al-Qaida.”…

According to Iraqi sources?? There’s some reputable sourcing huh?? Well, what the hell, Iraqi sources are good enough I guess, their accusations against Blackwater USA have been all that was needed for the Sec. of State, Rice Issues New Rules for Blackwater USA so, can we only guess that in an attempt to appease the goddamned Iraqis that now we’ll have U.S. troops on camera during their every move??

Can we expect there to be a huge outcry from the wimpy-assed left as they call for JUSTICE for the 25 or so innocent Iraqis that ran out to rescue their buddies during an active gunfight??

Would it also be a fair assumption to suppose that the Congress will begin immediate investigations into the 25 uncalled for deaths of some dumbasses that thought they were bullet proof and the U.S. troops that violated their sanctity??

C’mon people, wake up, Iraq isn’t a playground, our troops get shot at every day, and if they have good sense, they shoot back, and when they do, people die, and in a war sometimes civilians die, that tends to happen when you’re conducting urban warfare operations, civilians get the shitty end of the stick, it really sucks, but that’s life in a combat zone…

I don’t anymore buy the story that the Iraqis are reporting on this than I do their accusations against Blackwater USA contractors, but I do have a suggestion that may change the minds of the Iraqis doing the loudest complaining, we can pull ALL U.S. forces and BW USA personnel OUT of Iraq and we can let the Iraqis take care of Iraq all by themselves for a while, they think there’s a lot of innocent civilians being killed now?? They ain’t seen nothing yet!

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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush defended his administration’s detention and interrogation policies for terrorism suspects on Friday, saying they are both successful and lawful.

“When we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we’re going to detain them, and you bet we’re going to question them,” he said during a hastily called appearance in the Oval Office. “The American people expect us to find out information, actionable intelligence so we can help protect them. That’s our job.”

Bush was referring to a report on two secret memos in 2005 that authorized extreme interrogation tactics against terror suspects. “This government does not torture people,” the president said.

The two Justice Department legal opinions were disclosed in Thursday’s editions of The New York Times, which reported that the first 2005 legal opinion authorized the use of head slaps, freezing temperatures and simulated drownings, known as waterboarding, while interrogating terror suspects, and was issued shortly after then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took over the Justice Department.

That secret opinion, which explicitly allowed using the painful methods in combination, came months after a December 2004 opinion in which the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” and the administration seemed to back away from claiming authority for such practices.

Full Story Here:
Bush Says US ‘Does Not Torture’

Keep telling yourself that Mr. Bush, you’re just delusional enough to actually believe it, and if you keep saying it over and over, loudly, in your most sincere voice, you might get a few of the Bush Bots on board too, they generally believe anything you say…

Look, I am NOT trying to bash Bush but this was a stupid statement for him to make, he has just placed himself in a position to accept full responsibility for any and all acts of torture that may surface in the future, “The American President stated, ‘We don’t use torture’, and WE want him held accountable…’, there’s a very possible lead line for an MSM story, and it CAN happen, it’s not that I disapprove of forceful methods of interrogation, IF some asshat has information that could save this nation from a terror attack I believe we need to extract that information by any means necessary, no questions asked, if it saves American lives, USE IT, and tell the whole damn world that we DO use whatever method we MUST use to extricate any information a terrorist may have, don’t give your detractors a NEW field of fire to blast you on, and Mr. Bush, you have NO idea of WHAT really happens in those places that don’t exist…

What a President actually KNOWS as opposed to what really happens on a national security level is rarely the same information, Presidents are kept in the dark on many operations simply so they can maintain a plausible deniability factor, and this BOLD statement by Mr. Bush may make him seem like a noble and PC man to some, but to others it makes him look like a fool because they suspect otherwise concerning the use of torture, and to a few others it supplies them with all the ammo they need to provide 100% confirmation that it really DOES exist, and when a POTUS has the enemies that this POTUS has, there are people waiting in the wings to come forth with anything they have that may even remotely embarrass the office of POTUS, you would think that Mr. Bush’s advisers would have made that clear to him before he made this statement, but with Bush, who knows, maybe they DID and he ignored it, being the decider and all…

Mr. Bush may have given an executive order for U.S. Intel personnel to NOT use torture, but are ALL of our Intel people obeying that order?? Did he order them to not allow foreign operatives to use it under their supervision?? Simple semantics?? Sure, but if you’re looking at the BIG PICTURE, Bush has, once again, let his words place the office of POTUS in a precarious position…

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Sept. 30, 2007 - Since the fatal Sept. 16 Blackwater USA shooting in Baghdad’s Nasoor Square, officials from the private security company have insisted that their guards were responding to fire from “armed enemies.” Yet an extensive evidence file put together by the Iraqi National Police and obtained by NEWSWEEK—including documents, maps, sworn witness statements and police video footage—appears to contradict the contractors’ version of events. A confidential incident report, which has been provided by Iraqi National Police investigators to American military and civilian officials, concludes that the Blackwater vehicles “opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason.”

A nine-minute police video made in the moments after the shooting shows helicopters similar to those used by Blackwater still hovering over the wreckage of charred, smoking and bullet-pocked cars. (For an edited clip of the video, click here.) The graphic images include footage of burned human remains and show the street littered with brass bullet casings. They also show what appears to be a police officer waving a pistol at the scene; the footage was captured by a different police officer, who had run over from the nearby Iraqi National Police headquarters. (Portions of the video have been previously broadcast; it was recorded without sound.)

Iraqi National Police investigators also believe that Blackwater’s helicopters fired on the cars from above, according to confidential police documents and interviews with senior police officials. A memo written on Sept. 17 by the lead Iraqi police investigator states that shortly after the shooting began, “helicopters opened fire from the air toward the cars and civilians.” Gen. Hussein al-Awadi, the commander of the Iraqi National Police, told NEWSWEEK that the trajectory of some of the bullet wounds could only have been caused by fire from the air. “If anyone moved—whenever they saw someone leaving—either the convoy or the chopper shot him,” says Ali Kalaf Salman, an undercover Iraqi National Police officer who was working as a traffic cop at the scene. (One of the police documents lists 17 fatalities and many more wounded from the shooting. Other accounts have put the death toll at 11.)

Full Story Here:
Blackwater: The Confidential Iraqi Incident Report

I don’t want to be throwing accusations out there or anything, but, ya just knew there was going to be a but didn’t you, but have you ever noticed how the Iraqis, and OUR very own MSM always seem to able to come up with video of insurgents shooting at American troops or launching rockets and firing off mortars too??

And there’s never footage of the bad guys getting their asses kicked…

Why is that I wonder?? Just askin’…

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EDINBURG, Texas — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a plan to build fencing along parts of the United States-Mexico border is a “terrible idea” that overlooks local communities.

Pelosi made the comments during her trip to the Rio Grande Valley for the sixth annual Hispanic Engineering, Science & Technology Week conference hosted by the University of Texas-Pan American.

“I have been against the fence, I thought it’s a bad idea even when it was just a matter of discussion,” said Pelosi, D-California. “These are communities where you have a border going through them, they are not communities where you have a fence splitting them.”

The Department of Homeland Security this week announced plans to erect about 370 miles of fencing and 200 miles of vehicle barriers along the U.S. border by the end of 2008.

Also during her Thursday trip, Pelosi touted legislation that would make it easier for some illegal immigrants to receive higher education benefits.

The legislation, known as the DREAM Act, would eliminate a federal provision that discourages states from providing illegal immigrants with in-state tuition rates. It would also allow permanent residency for illegal immigrants who entered the country as children and have been admitted to an institution of higher education.

Full Story Here:
Pelosi Calls Border Fencing Plan ‘Terrible Idea’

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am of the strong belief that we WON on the Amnesty Bill recently but that’s just about as far as this is going to go…

Our wetback loving POS for a President doesn’t want a fence built, it will keep his amigos out, that useless waste of flesh Pelosi doesn’t want a fence because she a goofy assed libber bitch that hasn’t got a brain to call her own and the congress isn’t going to push it either simply because they are ALL dumber than a box of rocks…

All of them, each and every politico in this nation is doing their dead level best to give our country away as fast as they possibly can, what they can’t waste in Iraq, and that’s something like $40M a day I hear, what they can’t blow there they blow on taking care of illegal asswipes by giving them educations, health care, housing and anything else that can be thought of and we are paying for it, US, YOU and ME, We, the People, the American taxpayer, they are bleeding us dry and sticking it to us…

Folks, we have been lied to by George W. Bush, and we are being governed by the biggest bunch of lying, dumb-assed politicians in American history, we are in a dire position in this nation and if we don’t do some serious house cleaning in the next election, we might as well hang it up people, because it’s damn near over…

570 miles of fencing and barriers?? For a 1,951 mile long border??

That isn’t just a LIE, it’s a freaking insult to the intelligence of the American conservative, our border is wide open and this nation is perilously close to falling, and the cretins in D.C., led by the sorriest and dumbest president in U.S. history, are squarely responsible for the coming consequences…

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