Terror puzzle pieces missing

[Nottingham]

Terror puzzle pieces missing
Probe in Iraq finds no witnesses, many weapons, plenty of chaos
By VIVIENNE WALT
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Foreign Service
RESOURCES




BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. investigators tasked with cracking the growing terror network in Iraq say they are struggling to put the pieces together. They are hampered by chaotic crime scenes after bomb attacks, a near total absence of witnesses and Saddam Hussein's mountainous arsenal of weapons, into which they believe insurgents are still dipping five months after Iraq's army collapsed.

President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld both warned earlier this month that Iraq is now a magnet for global terrorism, perhaps involving Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. The enormous hurdles facing the American investigators probing recent bloody events show how daunting it will be to unravel any terror network in Iraq.

FBI agents, including perhaps the world's top bomb experts, have not made a single arrest or found a single witness in two August truck bombings: one that destroyed the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad and another that blew up the Jordanian Embassy. After a third August car bombing that killed at least 85 people, and possibly as many as 120, outside An Najaf's holy Shiite shrine, Iraqi police arrested four men. But FBI agents remain uncertain whether the men were involved.

"I don't know that we're exactly at square one, but this is going to take a really long time," said FBI agent Thomas V. Fuentes, who this week completed a two-month assignment as the bureau's chief agent in Iraq. "There are so many potential groups and individuals who would have a motive in these incidents. You couple that with the number of people capable of doing it, from top Baath Party officials to Saddam's military, to Fedayeen," zealous Saddam supporte

more...

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2106385

FBI No Arrests why am I not surprised! :bounce:

[bemildred]

1. Must be a steep learning curve.

No rent-a-cops handy to pin the crime on over there, eh?

[mike_c]

2. The FBI is busy applying the lessons learned in the anthrax investigation.

Sonewall, obfuscate, look busy, find nothing.

[fizzana]

3. People aren't exactly lining up to help the Americans

Chances are if the guerillas don't get you, the U.S. troops will shoot you by mistake.

[sattahipdeep]

4. Bernard Kerik

"In four months we brought back 40,000 police officers,
400 cars in Baghdad, 35 stations, communications all
over the country just about to the police; we've ordered
equipment, we've put together a 2003 budget, we
did it in four months."

"I couldn't have done that in New York City as the police
commissioner in five years. So I'm not really sure what
the critics are talking about when they're saying it's taking
too long."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec03/iraq_09-17.html

"Look at the blood all over the house.
We are not to blame for this," housewife Samam Kadhim said.
"This is the American behavior aggression
toward Muslim houses."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/iraq_09-12-03.html

[ScrewyRabbit]

5. Probably hard to find witnesses

...when so many Iraqis sympathize with the resistance.

[snippy]

6. Whistle Ass needs terrorists.

No terrorists = no campaign issue.

[damnraddem]

7. Oh, they can take their time.

It looks like the troops will be there for a while, and the terror attacks continue for a while. So, they have plenty of time to track down who's doing it. And, after all, if they had any concern for the safety of the troops, they wouldn't have sent them there in the first place.

What a mess Dubya has created. And the thing is: he was warned ahead of time that it would be a mess.