The clown show continues.

Daily Star Lebanon - At least 30 people were killed in a wave of violence that swept northern Iraq, while the government said more than 700 insurgents had been arrested in its Operation Lightning dragnet in the capital.

The violence came as Baghdad  vowed that all groups in the fragmented country would take part in the political process.

"More than 700 terrorists have been arrested and 28 others killed," said an Interior Ministry official, adding that "enormous quantities" of weapons had also been seized since the offensive was launched on Sunday.

Operation Lightning is aimed at barring rebel access to the capital and rooting out insurgents hiding there.

But while progress was being trumpeted in Baghdad, dozens died in northern Iraq.

cont@link

NYT - Many Iraqis today are wealthier than they were before the invasion, with more bustle in the streets and a new stock market that is trading billions of shares a month; yet by other measures, like electricity availability and the unemployment rate, Iraq's economy appears weaker than it was during the Baathist reign.

Much has been made, rightly, of the intensification of the insurgency. Last month's toll on United States troops was well above the average for the last two years, and was the deadliest yet for Iraqi security forces.

Still, Iraqis are providing authorities with far more tips on insurgent activities than even a few months ago. And most people remain optimistic about the future. Even Sunni Arabs, who provide the largest pool of recruits for the insurgency, seem slightly more hopeful than a year ago. This optimism is welcome, because with security conditions poor and the economy a mixed bag, the fledgling political process has increasingly become Iraq's main good news - and main hope.

see NYT for chart and muiltimedia links

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBH22LJI9E.html

By Paul Garwood  Associated Press Writer

Published: Jun 3, 2005

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Gunmen on Friday killed a city council official in Kirkuk, a contractor renovating a mosque in Samarra and a man standing outside a Baghdad hospital, while several car bombs that targeted U.S. convoys in the capital wounded six civilians, authorities said.

The new bloodshed came a day after 48 people were killed in a particularly violent day in Iraq - including more than 30 in four suicide bombings - raising to at least 825 the number of people slain since the new Shiite-led government was announced April 28.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBD8X9JI9E.html

By Robert Weller  Associated Press Writer

Published: Jun 3, 2005

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DENVER (AP) - Three soldiers have been ordered to stand trial at Fort Carson on murder charges in the suffocation of an Iraqi general, who died during an interrogation 1 1/2 years ago.

Chief Warrant Officers Lewis Welshofer and Jeff L. Williams and Spc. Jerry Loper, all of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, also face charges of assault and dereliction of duty during combat operations, Army spokeswoman Kim Tisor said Thursday.

Prosecutors claim the soldiers put Maj. Gen. Abed Mowhoush headfirst into a sleeping bag, tied him up with an electrical cord and threw him to the ground. The Army accuses the soldiers of sitting and standing on Mowhoush's chest.

Previously secret court testimony indicates the Iraqi general's body was badly bruised and he may have been severely beaten two days before he suffocated on Nov. 26, 2003.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GF03Ak01.html

Jun 3, 2005  

By Dahr Jamail

AMMAN, Jordan - After two devastating sieges of Fallujah in April and November of 2004, which left thousands of Iraqis dead and hundreds of thousands without homes, the aftermath of the US attempt to rid the city of resistance fighters in an effort to improve security in the country continues to plague the residents of Fallujah, and Iraq as a whole.

Simmering anger grows with time among Fallujans who, after having most of their city destroyed by the US military onslaught, have seen promises of rebuilding by both the US military and Iraqi government remain mostly unfulfilled.

"There are daily war crimes being committed in Fallujah, even now," said Mohammed Abdulla, the executive director of the Study Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Fallujah (SCHRDF). His organization works within the destruction of Fallujah, trying to monitor the plight of residents, bring them reconstruction aid, and document the war crimes and illegal weapons that were used during the November siege.

"Now we have none of the rebuilding which was promised, which people need so desperately in order to get their lives back in order," said Abdulla during a recent interview with Asia Times Online in Amman.

Doctors working inside the city continue to complain of US and Iraqi security forces impeding their medical care. Along with the continuance of strict US military checkpoints, residents in the city say the treatment they receive from both the US military and Iraqi security forces operating inside Fallujah is both degrading and humiliating. This treatment is also being perceived by most as intentional.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050603/ts_nm/security_guantanamo_koran_dc

Fri Jun 3, 7:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American jailers at the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects splashed a Koran with urine, kicked and stepped on the Islamic holy book and soaked it with water, the U.S. military said on Friday.

U.S. Southern Command, responsible for the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, described for the first time five cases of "mishandling" of a Koran by U.S. personnel confirmed by a newly completed military inquiry, officials said in a statement.

In the incident involving urine, which took place this past March, Southern Command said a guard left his post and urinated near an air vent and "the wind blew his urine through the vent" and into a cell block.

It said a detainee told guards the urine "splashed on him and his Koran." The statement said the detainee was given a new prison uniform and Koran, and that the guard was reprimanded and given duty in which he had no contact with prisoners.

Southern Command said a civilian contractor interrogator, who was later fired, apologized in July 2003 to a detainee for stepping on his Koran. In August 2003, prisoners' Korans became wet when night-shift guards had thrown water balloons in a cell block, the statement said. In February 2002, guards kicked a prisoner's Koran, it added.

In the fifth "confirmed incident" of mishandling a Koran, Southern Command said a prisoner in August 2003 complained that "a two-word obscenity" had been written in English in his Koran. Southern Command said it was "possible" a guard had written the words but "equally possible" the prisoner himself had done it.

Southern Command released its findings on a Friday night.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-06-03-guard-toll_x.htm?csp=34

By Robert Burns, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Thirty members of the Army National Guard, Army Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve died in the Iraq war in May, matching the highest toll for any month of the war, according to Pentagon figures.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/11811154.htm

Posted on Fri, Jun. 03, 2005

PATRICK QUINN

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An influential Sunni association called for an end to a weeklong counterinsurgency offensive in Baghdad, saying it overwhemingly targets members of their religious minority and has led to the detention of hundreds of people.

Eight people died from insurgent attacks around the country, bringing to at least 830 the number killed since the Shiite-led government took office April 28 - an average of 23 deaths a day, not counting rebels.

http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/11811216.htm

Posted on Fri, Jun. 03, 2005

JENNIFER LOVEN

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday played down a report in which U.N. weapons inspectors documented additional materials missing from weapons sites in Iraq.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Bush administration had taken steps to ensure sites were secured, and he suggested it was doubtful the looted material was being used to boost other countries' weapons programs.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council, acting chief weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos said that satellite imagery experts had determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles had been removed from 109 sites, up from 90 reported in March.

The sites have been emptied of equipment to varying degrees, with the largest percentage of missing items at 58 missile facilities.

For example, 289 of the 340 pieces of equipment to produce missiles - or about 85 percent, had been removed, the report said.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Since the war, U.S. teams took over the weapons search. Former chief arms hunter Charles Duelfer and his Iraq Survey Group found no weapons of mass destruction in the country, discrediting President Bush's stated rationale for invading Iraq.

McClellan referred to findings by Duelfer, saying that "any looting was the work of uncoordinated elements rather than directed at an effort to try to export equipment to a country that might obtain or have a weapons of mass destruction program."

He also noted that Duelfer had concluded that, since the looted materials are easily obtained elsewhere, "other governments are not likely to look to Iraq to buy used versions of it."

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5439005.html

Last update: June 3, 2005 at 8:43 PM

Antonio Castaneda,  Associated Press

June 4, 2005

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

The problem in this area is not a lack of courage, but a shortage of capable Iraqi troops. Operation New Market has been the second recent offensive in Anbar Province that included only a few dozen Iraqi soldiers fighting alongside about 1,000 U.S. Marines.

The soldiers are aware most residents would rather see Sunni troops, or at least local men, patrolling their neighborhoods.

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/politics/11810085.htm

BY WARREN P. STROBEL AND JONATHAN S. LANDAY

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - U.S. intelligence has no evidence that terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi visited Syria in recent months to plan bombings in Iraq, and experts don't believe the widely publicized meeting ever happened, according to U.S. officials.

Two weeks ago, a top U.S. military official in Baghdad, Iraq, told reporters that Zarqawi had traveled to Syria in April and met with leaders of the Iraqi insurgency to plan the recent wave of bombings against American troops and the Iraqi government. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In the following days, top Bush administration and Iraqi officials increased their threats against Syria.

The reassessment comes amid a debate within the U.S. intelligence community over how to fight the insurgency and over Syria's role in it, the officials said.

Some analysts argue that, while Damascus has been unhelpful in stopping terrorists crossing its border, its importance is being exaggerated and that the key to defeating the insurgency is in Iraq, not in Syria or Iran.

 Washington, DC, Jun. 3 (UPI) -- Iraqi Sunni Sheik Ammar Abdel Rahim Nasir told the Saudi newspaper Al-Medina that al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, died May 27 and has been buried in Fallujah's cemetery. Nasir claims recent firefights in Fallujah involved militants protecting Zarqawi's grave from U.S. soldiers patrolling the area. Nasir said Zarqawi was taken to Fallujah after being injured in the city of Ramadi about three weeks ago. Two doctors working on Zarqawi had stopped a serious hemorrhage in his intestines, but his condition worsened and he died May 27. Nasir said Zarqawi's will ordered that no funeral should be held and the right to announce his death should be left to Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida leadership in Afghanistan. Two days ago an audio clip attributed to Zarqawi was posted on the Internet assuring his followers that he had only been lightly injured. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld subsequently warned countries neighboring Iraq not to give medical assistance to Zarqawi, saying, "Were a neighboring country to take him in and provide medical assistance or haven for him, they obviously would be associating themselves with a major linkage in the al-Qaida network, and a person who has a great deal of blood on his hands. And that's something that people would want to take note of."

Iraqi troops refuse to attend U.S. army training

04 Jun 2005 12:43:01 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Fadil al-Badrani

RUTBA, Iraq, June 4 (Reuters) - An Iraqi army unit has been disbanded after it refused to attend a U.S. training course in Baghdad, former members of the unit said on Saturday.

The soldiers, part of a 90-strong force called the Defence Force of Rutba, said they had refused to attend training because they feared reprisals from locals if they were seen to have cooperated with the Americans.

"We refused to go because we were afraid that when we came back to Rutba we would be killed," Taha Allawi, a former member of the unit, told Reuters. Rutba is in the far west of Iraq, close to the border with Jordan.

"The people here would believe that we were cooperating with U.S. forces and that is a reason for anyone to be killed."

A U.S. military official who oversees training said Iraqis who refused to attend courses could be dismissed, but said the decision rested with Iraq's Ministry of Defence.

"While coalition forces may have delivered the news, those decisions are made by the Ministry of Defence," said Lieutenant-Colonel Fred Wellman. "The United States does not disband units or dismiss soldiers."

Iraq's Defence Ministry had no immediate comment

more

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BAK445092.htm

Al Jazeera denies Rumsfeld charge it airs killings Sat Jun 4, 7:57 AM ET

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Arab TV channel Al Jazeera rejected on Saturday as unfounded Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's accusations that it was encouraging Islamic militant groups by airing beheadings of foreign hostages in     Iraq.

"Al Jazeera ... has never at any time transmitted pictures of killings or beheadings and ... any talk about this is absolutely unfounded," the television said in a statement.

Al Jazeera, repeatedly accused by Washington of biased reporting on Iraq, has often shown video of hostages pleading at gunpoint for their government to withdraw its troops. But it does not broadcast footage of killings, posted on the Internet by militants.

The channel voiced "deep regret and surprise" over Rumsfeld's remarks.

Rumsfeld earlier said: "If anyone lived in the Middle East and watched a network like the Al Jazeera day after day after day, even if he was an American, he would start waking up and asking what's wrong. But America is not wrong.

more

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050604/ts_nm/security_rumsfeld_media_dc;_ylt=AsFphCETymlM0D3CpqRudYus0N
UE;ylu=X3oDMTA2MTQ3MTFjBHNlYwN0cw--

_yep every reporter in the world is wrong, it just must piss Rummy off that he has no control over the world media-poor lamenting fool

Saturday, June 4, 2005  

Old enough to kill, too young to drink?

Servicemembers weigh in on what the drinking age should be

Stars and Stripes

European edition, Saturday, June 4, 2005

On Nov. 1, U.S. Forces Korea raised the legal drinking age to 21 for its personnel - including troops, contract workers, civilians and family members. USFK officials said the change also applies when its personnel are off-base, although the legal drinking age in South Korea is 20.

Officials said offenders could face action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Those not subject to the UCMJ "could, as a minimum, have their privileges revoked," according to a news release in late October.

"There is no good justification why the drinking age here should be different than it is in the U.S.," Col. MaryAnn Cummings, USFK spokeswoman, said in the release. "An assignment or employment opportunity in Korea should not give special privileges with respect to alcohol over those in the states."

But Sgt. Stephen Knabe, 24, of Gainsville, Texas, who serves with Company A, 602nd Aviation Support Battalion at Camp Eagle, South Korea, supported lowering the drinking age.

"I came in when I was 17," he said. "I was in Korea the first time when I was 19. Drinking was pretty much what everyone was doing. I drank then but just stayed out of trouble."

more

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=29508

When they changed the drinking age at Ft Campbell, it surely took the fun out of the you will attend and have fun battalion parties ;)

http://www.kfmb.com/stories/story.14258.html

Last Updated:

06-04-05 at 11:10AM

John R. Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront the head of a global arms-control agency and demand he resign, then orchestrated the firing of the unwilling diplomat in a move a U.N. tribunal has since judged unlawful, according to officials involved.

A former Bolton deputy says the U.S. undersecretary of state felt Jose Bustani "had to go," particularly because the Brazilian was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad. That might have helped defuse the crisis over alleged Iraqi weapons and undermined a U.S. rationale for war.

Bustani, who says he got a "menacing" phone call from Bolton at one point, was removed by a vote of just one-third of member nations at an unusual special session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), at which the United States cited alleged mismanagement in calling for his ouster.

The United Nations' highest administrative tribunal later condemned the action as an "unacceptable violation" of principles protecting international civil servants. The OPCW session's Swiss chairman now calls it an "unfortunate precedent" and Bustani a "man with merit."

"Many believed the U.S. delegation didn't want meddling from outside in the Iraq business," said the retired Swiss diplomat, Heinrich Reimann. "That could be the case."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/583953.html

By Zvi Bar'el

The result is ruinous for the Iraqi economy. Before the war, the forecast was that Iraq would be able to sell about 3 million barrels a day; now, two years on, it is exporting less than 2 million barrels. In the past year, this brought into the country about $17 billion. In the first third of the present year, Iraq sold about $7 billion worth of oil - much less than anticipated and very far from meeting the country's needs. Approximately $100 billion is needed to restore Iraq's infrastructure in almost every area. But the shortage of money is actually the "easy" problem.

The celebrations surrounding the formation of a new government were almost immediately tempered by some very disquieting data: Close to 700 people have been killed since the government was established, and more dead are added to the list every day. This week came a glimmer of hope for some sort of turning point, when insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose organization appears to be behind most of the terror attacks, was reported to have been seriously wounded. Several Internet sites even reported that a replacement had been appointed, but the reports have since changed.

Evidently, Zarqawi is still running things and even if he were killed, his organization seems to have a broad enough infrastructure to be able to continue with the terror campaign. The show of force by the Iraqi security forces - about 40,000 Iraqi police and soldiers raided Baghdad neighborhoods in a "lightning" operation - did yield many arrests, but the bombings have not abated.

The shortfall in income from oil, combined with the frequent terror attacks, will force the American administration this year again to pour several tens of billions of dollars into Iraq to keep the country's rehabilitation going. But the rehabilitation efforts apparently are not taking off, and not only because of the bombings. This week, the Kurdish newspaper Al-Ahli, published in Iraq, reported that Kuwaiti companies that won key tenders to rebuild the water network and to install electricity power stations have been unable to start working because of corruption and an excess of bureaucratic regulations.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050604/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=AiLumj_nF2I0KEl.7fiXRuSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDM
TA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer

LATIFIYAH, Iraq - Hundreds of Iraqi and U.S. troops searched fields and farms Saturday for insurgents and their hideouts in an area south of Baghdad known for attacks, and the Marines said they discovered 50 weapons and ammunition caches and a huge underground bunker west of the capital fitted out with air conditioning, a kitchen and showers.

The joint U.S.-Iraqi force operating in Latifiyah to the south was backed by American air power and said it had rounded up at least 108 Iraqis, mainly Sunnis, suspected of involvement in the brutal insurgent campaign to topple the Shiite-led government.

To the west of the capital, the 2nd Marine division said its forces had discovered 50 weapons and ammunitions caches over the past four days in restive Anbar province. The military said the find included a recently used "insurgent lair" in a massive underground bunker complex that included air-conditioned living quarters and high tech military equipment, including night vision goggles.

That bunker was found cut from a rock quarry in Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. The Marines said the facility was 170 yards wide and 275 yards long.

In its rooms were "four fully furnished living spaces, a kitchen with fresh food, two shower facilities and a working air conditioner. Other rooms within the complex were filled with weapons and ammunition," the announcement said.

The weapons included "numerous types of machine guns, ordnance, including mortars, rockets and artillery rounds, black uniforms, ski masks, compasses, log books, night vision goggles, and fully charged cell phones."

Attacks leave U.S. troops with little choice but to suspect everyone

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/world/article/0,1406,KNS_351_3824774,00.html

By ANNA BADKHEN

June 4, 2005

They go from room to room, sifting through the family's meager possessions, tossing them on the floor. One of the women huddling on the living room carpet, they learn, is the sister of two other suspected insurgents, Ali Turki and Abu Basset Turki. But those men are not here either.

This angers D'Angelo further. Marching into a small bedroom, he spots three burlap bags lying in the corner. He rips the bags open with a pocket knife and spreads the spilled flour evenly across the floor with his combat boot, looking for hidden weapons. Nothing.

"We've been here since January," D'Angelo says, his voice raspy with rage. "I had two people shot. My track guy was hit with a VBIED (vehicle-born improvised explosive device, or car bomb), and we hit two land mines. With all that consideration it gets more personal." Many of the 1,200 U.S. soldiers in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, share D'Angelo's sentiment. Day after day, they face elusive Iraqi insurgents, who launch hit-and-run attacks on coalition troops, making Samarra, home to about 150,000 mostly Sunni Arabs, one of the most volatile cities in Iraq.

Last week, two suicide car bombs blew up outside the southern wall of Patrol Base Uvanni, situated in the center of the town. Simultaneously, insurgents lobbed mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades at the base from the surrounding residential neighborhoods. The explosions destroyed an Iraqi house and damaged two others, killing at least one Iraqi civilian. The impact also threw a U.S. medic off the bunk, cutting his face. The organizers of the attack, like most of Samarra's elusive insurgents, were never found.

Attacks such as this leave increasingly frustrated U.S. soldiers with little choice but to suspect everybody.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=820199

Jun 4, 2005 -- MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi forces have seized a senior militant leader linked to Jordanian mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and accused of overseeing an array of deadly attacks in Iraq, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

A spokesman for the ministry said Mullah Mahdi, sometimes known as Prince of Princes or Abu Abdul Rahman, was detained after a raid backed by U.S. troops on Friday in the northern city of Mosul, where insurgents have built a base of operations.

"This is a very significant achievement. Mullah Mahdi is one of the most dangerous terrorists in the country," the spokesman said. He would not give details of the operation but said six others, including Mahdi's brother, were also seized.

Mahdi is believed to be a senior member of Army of Ansar al-Sunna, one of Iraq's most feared militant groups, responsible for a series of spectacular attacks in Iraq, including a blast inside a U.S. military mess hall in Mosul late last year.

The Australian muslim cleric in Iraq to help negotiate the release Douglas Wood has reportedly met the Australian hostage.

Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilaly claims he saw Mr Wood in person, and says the captive has been given some much-needed medication.

Ikebal Patel, from the Federation of Islamic Councils, has told Channel Seven he learnt of these latest developments in a brief mobile phone conversation with the Sheikh.

"You'd appreciate that it was on a mobile phone and he was on the run and things weren't as clear," he said.

"But he said to me 'I've seen him eye to eye', is the words he used - eye to eye - that yes, it was Douglas and I'm quite happy and satisfied that he still then has a presence and requirement."

Mr Patel says while he can not reveal all the details of the meeting, he says it has buoyed hopes Mr Wood's release is imminent.

"Most definitely, I mean this is the best news we could have had for a long time and at least we know Douglas is alive and that's the important thing," he said.

cont @

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200506/s1384697.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060401506.html

Rosy View in Time Of Rising Violence Revives Criticism

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, June 5, 2005; Page A01

President Bush's portrayal of a wilting insurgency in Iraq at a time of escalating violence and insecurity throughout the country is reviving the debate over the administration's Iraq strategy and the accuracy of its upbeat claims.

While Bush and Vice President Cheney offer optimistic assessments of the situation, a fresh wave of car bombings and other attacks killed 80 U.S. soldiers and more than 700 Iraqis last month alone and prompted Iraqi leaders to appeal to the administration for greater help. Privately, some administration officials have concluded the violence will not subside through this year.

The disconnect between Rose Garden optimism and Baghdad pessimism, according to government officials and independent analysts, stems not only from Bush's focus on tentative signs of long-term progress but also from the shrinking range of policy options available to him if he is wrong. Having set out on a course of trying to stand up a new constitutional, elected government with the security firepower to defend itself, Bush finds himself locked into a strategy that, even if it proves successful, foreshadows many more deadly months to come first, analysts said.

Military commanders in Iraq privately told a visiting congressional delegation last week that the United States is at least two years away from adequately training a viable Iraqi military but that it is no longer reasonable to consider augmenting U.S. troops already strained by the two-year operation, said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). "The idea that the insurgents are on the run and we are about to turn the corner, I did not hear that from anybody," Biden said in an interview.

NYT June 5, 2005    

Iraqi Ex-Employees of U.S. Face Death Threats or Exile

By KATHERINE ZOEPF in Damascus, Syria  

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/international/middleeast/05damascus.html

He's a veteran, Pulitzer-winning war correspondent, so the choice of metaphor means something.

WEEK IN REVIEW | June 5, 2005    

Iraq's Ho Chi Minh Trail

By JOHN F. BURNS   (NYT)   News  

Iraq's porous border with Syria includes miles of trackless desert.

Some American officers call him "Z." In the military's classified signal traffic, he is "AMZ." By any name, American forces in Iraq have found in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a mesmerizing target....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/weekinreview/05burn.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-06-05-iraq_x.htm

Posted 6/5/2005 4:43 PM

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The Shiite-led Iraqi government acknowledged Sunday that its forces may have targeted innocent Sunni Muslims in a drive to crush the insurgency in southwestern Baghdad and its suburbs. Saddam Hussein will go on trial within two months on a dozen charges of crimes against humanity, a spokesman for the prime minister said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/international/middleeast/05damascus.html?

By KATHERINE ZOEPF

Published: June 5, 2005

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Then the threats started. Because of his work with American troops, some Iraqis saw Mr. Ahmed as a collaborator. Mr. Ahmed said his family was harassed and abused, and they moved three times in an effort to hide from insurgents. When Mr. Ahmed begged his American bosses for help, he was told they could do nothing. He said he finally realized that for his family's safety, he would have to leave Iraq.

Alone, he crossed the border into Syria in January.

Mr. Ahmed is one of a growing group of Iraqis who used to work as interpreters, drivers or cooks for American forces in Iraq but have fled to Syria because the insurgency branded them as traitors. In recent months, Iraqis who are known to have worked with American troops have been killed and kidnapped in large numbers.

They were once among the most enthusiastic Iraqi supporters of the American-led invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein. But now, they say, they feel confused and abandoned in a society that, with its ubiquitous banners bearing Syrian Baath Party slogans and huge portraits of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and his family, reminds them at least superficially of Mr. Hussein's Iraq.

the drinking age was lowered to 18 in most places in the country when I was still a kiddo precisely because of the "old enough to die" issue.

Over the decades, The Mothers Against Drunk Driving and similar lobbies have slowly turned the tide back over the years. Doesn't hurt that it makes the auto insurance companies happy.

Not to mention that 26th Amendment in 1970 gave 18-year-olds the right to vote. That was also mainly because of Vietnam. The old turds in Congress would not have given that to a bunch of Woodstock hippies just because they were asking for it.

for senior UN officials to be pushed out for reasons unrelated to their job.  All posts above D1 or D2 (depends on the agency/organization) - i.e. middle/bottom rung of senior management) are decided on by the reps of the various countries. These are often more patronage jobs than anything else.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/special_packages/iraq/11816589.htm

Posted on Sat, Jun. 04, 2005

By Tom Lasseter

Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Marines in Iraq discovered a series of underground bunkers used by insurgents in western Iraq that show a sophisticated organization with a vast supply of weapons and enough confidence to operate near a major Marine base.

The well-equipped, air-conditioned bunkers, found Thursday, were just 16 miles from the city of Fallujah where hundreds of Marines are stationed. Measuring 558 feet by 902 feet, the underground system of rooms featured four fully furnished living spaces, showers and a kitchen with fresh food - suggesting insurgents had been present recently, according to the U.S. military.

The weapons and high-tech equipment found inside the bunker was impressive: mortars, rockets, machine guns, night-vision goggles, compasses, ski masks and cell phones. Marines also found at least 59 surface-to-air missiles, some 29,000 AK-47 rounds, more than 350 pounds of plastic explosives and an unspecified amount of TNT in a five-mile area around the bunkers.

"There isn't any historical data here detailing whether this is the most elaborate facility ever found in Iraq or even (the) province," Marine spokesperson 1st Lt. Kate S. VandenBossche said via e-mail from a base in nearby Ramadi. "I can tell you that it is the largest underground system discovered in at least the last year."

June 5, 2005    

U.S. Uncovers Vast Hide-Out of Iraqi Rebels

By EDWARD WONG   (NYT)   News

...The bunkers were built into an old rock quarry north of the town of Karma, an insurgent stronghold in Anbar Province that lies near the city of Falluja. The bunker system is 558 feet by 902 feet, nearly equal to a quarter of the Empire State Building's office space, making it the largest underground insurgent hide-out to be discovered in at least the past year, if not during the entire war, said Capt. Jeffrey S. Pool, a spokesman for the Second Marine Division....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/international/middleeast/05iraq.html  

Hotel Jihad ?

Jihad Ramada Inn ?

Mad Dog

The Ramadi Inn?

The Hotel Insurgency?

Or maybe just the Inn Surgency?

The Scare-us Hilton?

The Four Treasons?

Detest Western?

Repel The Infidel Bush Gardens?

Super 155mm?

Is it a Bed and Bombfast?

Is their slogan "We'll leave the Jihad on for you"?

Bada Bing!

Thank you.  I'll be here all week.

Try the veal!