American Operations in Iraq Against Al-Qaeda and Shia Militias The American Army considers that the previous widespread operations was successful(picture caption) The American Army executed in Iraq a broad-scope military operation said to be aimed at fragmenting the infrastructure of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Shia militias equally. A military spokesperson said that the operation which carried the name " Shabih Strike" (supposed to be "Phantom Strike," but the adjective doesn't a...
32 Killed In Raids on Sadr City and the Security Surge in Al-Kathimia 32 people were killed in raids executed by American planes upon Sadr City, coming amidst the the Iraqi authorities' intensification of security measures and curfews in Bagdad, blamed upon riots which broke out amongst Shia groups in the Kathimia neighborhood in NE Bagdad to commemorate the anniversary of the death of the Imam Mousa al-Kathim. The American Army said that the raids targeted "those embroiled" in transpor...
In a sadly unsurprising twist, the Islamic State of Iraq has posted a video on one of its websites that claims that they had held the two missing US soldiers (SPC Alex R. Jimenez, 25, and PVT Byron W. Fouty, 19) held prisoner and decided to execute them. The video posted reportedly contained images of the soldiers' military identification cards. While some feel that the insurgents are hoping "to deny closure to the families of the missing soldiers" by drawing out the timeline of finalizin...
Yes, "force adjustments." Stressing that this is not related to "that surge thing we did," the Department of Defense announced yesterday the identities of the next 10 brigade combat teams that will deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. These units consist (or will consist, if they become fully staffed) of approximately 35,000 personnel (where have we seen that number before?) and deployments of these units will begin in August 2007 (which falls earlier than beginnings of some previo...
Yesterday, Wednesday, the trial of 1LT Ehren Watada, accused of missing movement and unbecoming conduct, ended in a mistrial (due to, some say, prosecutor bungling). Watada had refused to deploy to Iraq with his unit and made public statements denouncing the legality of the war both before and after his unit deployed. Watada's lawyers had wanted to bring the legal standing of the invasion into the trial as a defense, as justification for his actions. A military judge ruled this out. ...
CNN Headline News just did a pretty good piece about how a lot of Middle Eastern news networks can be slanted away from the Israeli side of any situation. This kind of preempts any article that I might have written about them using Al-Jazeera images and headlines without adding anything to them, giving the impression that their only source on those aspects of the stories was Al-Jazeera itself. Or, it at least shortens it up a bit, to just this note. (I also noticed yesterday that Fox N...
"Story has been pulled at the request of the Defense Department" BWAHAHAHAHA!"
We have had a large turnover at work in the past few months. Prior to this, there was a vested interest amongst my colleagues for the situation in Iraq. When was the vote? How many attacks were there? Who's in harm's way? And there were reasons for this, obvious to any who know who we are and what we do, but it seemed more than that. It seemed that we cared. Now, this past week, we had a train up session. There are a lot of new faces in the morning briefings (and not just from my "o...
Watching al-Jazeera today, the biggest news was not Katrina, although the graphic pictures of the destruction wrought in the southern United States proved too great, and the channel showed a fair amount on that subject as well. The marquee spot was saved for Link in Arabic (those are the shoes of the victims in that lead picture, for some reason), or Link for you English-only (or at least non-Arabic) types. Hundreds killed in a panic on a bridge. I'll tell you, al-Jazeera see...
Fox News Link CNN Link Found this while perusing the 1AUG Army Times. "Charles Chibitty, the last survivor of the Comanche code talkers who used their native language to transmit messages for the Allies in Europe during World War II, has died. He was 83." -- Army Times ' "It's strange, but growing up as a child I was forbidden to speak my native language at school," Chibitty said in 2002. "Later my country asked me to. My language helped win the war and that makes me very proud...
I was going to do a little research on the fatwa issued earlier this week by a fair number of cooperating US Islamist groups, but it seems someone has already done a bit of research on it. Link (found through Smash Link , who I really want to put back on my favorites' list once that's back up) Sorry, grey. I'll try and do something insightful later.
New York Times Link As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia and his young relatives shouldered their Kalashnikov rifles and opened fire, the police and witnesses said. In the fierce gun battle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed, and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia's nephews and a bystander were wounded, the police said. Again, I saw it first on the Early Bird News, and it was so cool I had to share. While the article does point out the ...
Go to this Link . It's a good read... my favorite part was: In the afternoon, protesters standing outside al-Hariri's palace were heard chanting: "There is no God but Allah and Syria is the enemy of Allah." Then, cars with young men honking horns, holding al-Hariri's pictures and waving black flags poured into the streets until there was such a traffic jam that cars could not move. Whether directly or indirectly responsible, Syria done messed up, folks.
After putting it off for months, the Sauds couldn't help but jump on the bandwagon after what went down in Iraq: Link Hay, look! al-Jazeera has something to say, too! Link Way to be upbeat about the strides your Arab brethren are taking, Al-Jay! If you can't go all the way, why bothering taking small steps, amirite? While some were calling for the Suadis to take Democratic steps just this past month Link ("The government of Saudi Arabia can demonstrate its leadership in the...