Cease-Fire Agreement Reached In Fallujah; 13 U.S. troops Killed In Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

No harm, no foul I guess? Guess Bush really showed them Iraqis that we don't negotiate with terrorists.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2004/n04192004_200404192.html

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2004 – U.S., coalition and Iraqi officials have agreed "to implement a full and unbroken cease-fire" in the city of Fallujah, chief Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said today in Baghdad.

The agreement, Senor told reporters at a press briefing, was reached over a series of meetings over the past several days.

The cease-fire agreement, he noted, features several points:

Coalition forces will allow "unfettered" access to Fallujah General Hospital for treatment of sick and injured.

more

[Zomby Woof]

1. any bets on how long it will last?

Can't stand sounding cynical, but if this cease-fire is anything like the last one... :argh:

edit- typo

[mouse7]

5. What time is it there now?

I'll say about 7 hours after the cease-fire officially starts.

[Jacobin]

15. I'll give it fifteen minutes

[bemildred]

2. Fig leaf. nt

[alcuno]

3. I watched Senor this AM and it was hysterical.

First of all, who has agreed to a ceasefire? The people with the guns or bureaucratics. Second of all, Senor was listing all the items that needed to be turned in: mortar rounds, RPG's, AK47's, explosive materials, etc. And the list went on and on. There was something very funny about the whole thing.

[Teaser]

8. How will we know?

How are we going to tell when they've handed in enough weapons?

The insurgents have already departed for places elsewhere, according to several reports, anyway.

[saigon68]

9. Senor is a Lap Dog




"Senor" Sleaze Senor mouth piece for Viceroy Bremer

His quote, “We must "cleanse" the country of the divisive elements”

[JoFerret]

12. Cleanse ethnically?

These descriptors of those fighting the coalition are always so demeaning and marginalizing.

[saigon68]

19. His exact words

Apparently the Press freaked out Here is the URL for this moron and KRAZY KILLER KIMMITT

"It is critical that we cleanse the Iraqi body politic of the poison that remains here after 35 years of Saddam Hussein's totalitarian rule."

http://www.cpa-iraq.org/transcripts/20040412_Apr12_KimmittSenor.html

[ewagner]

4. So what does this mean?

While U.S.-coalition forces "do not intend to resume offensive operations" if all persons inside Fallujah turn in their heavy weapons, Senor said, "individual violators will be dealt with on an individual basis."

Does this mean that the military was practicing "collective punishment" before?

[sampsonblk]

6. Who asked for the cease fire?

If two guys are fighting and one yells "Time out!" Is that the one who was winning or losing?

How did we ever get into this MESS?

[dedhed]

7. I'm not holding my breath...

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't expect such a cease-fire to last very long.

That same article says...

"The cease-fire also calls for Fallujah citizens and groups to turn in all illegal weapons, Senor noted, including mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, grenades, sniper rifles, surface-to-air missiles, and other banned ordnance and associated ammunition."

I'd love to hear a card-carrying NRA member's thoughts on that compromise? Any takers?

:evilgrin:

[Scurrilous]

20. How do you say...

..."from my cold dead hands" in Arabic?

[Imperialism Inc.]

10. Interesting in what it seems to confirm.

The cease-fire agreement, he noted, features several points:

* Coalition forces will allow "unfettered" access to Fallujah General Hospital for treatment of sick and injured.

So this and other conditions confirms the reports of stuff like US snipers outside of the hospitals, perhaps?


* All parties agreed to provide for the removal and burial of the dead, as well as providing food and medicine in isolated areas of the city.

* The start of an evening curfew will be moved from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. to enable Fallujah religious functionaries to conduct services.

* Measures will be implemented to provide passage of official ambulances throughout the city via checkpoints.

* Medical, technical and security personnel will be allowed access throughout Fallujah to conduct their work.

[NickB79]

11. Unfettered access to hospitals?

Wow, those humanitarians! You mean we're actually gonna let the Iraqis bring their wounded to hospitals? Give that man a Nobel Peace Prize.

Seriously, doesn't that imply that we've been allowing them less than "unfettered access" to hospitals the past few weeks we've been laying seige to Fallujah? Really adds more credibility to the claims of hundreds of civilians dead if they can't bring their wounded to hospitals.

[pinto]

14. kick, that single phrase "unfettered access to hospitals" says a lot

'bout what it must have been like in Fallujah recently.

[Sabriel]

18. We need an accounting

I'd reeeeeallly like to know exactly what was going on in Fallujah the past week, so I hope the "unfettered access" extends to reporting casualties, too. Where the hell are the journalists in all this?

[dudeness]

13. who are the " iraqi officials"

are these the same insurgents/terrorists that "we will never negotiate with" ?..I feel this is gigantic backdown by the occupiers and will give the Iraqi resistance some political imputus and credibility amongst its general population..

[pinto]

16. where'd Senor's reference to "drug users" come from? n/t

[NYC]

17. Very odd.

I don't remember any mention of "drug users" before.

...Iraqi security forces, Fallujah's residents and coalition forces, Senor told reporters, "must move to eliminate remaining foreign fighters, criminals and drug users from Fallujah in order for security and stability to occur."...

[krkaufman]

21. Get it right...

> we don't negotiate with terrorists.

When they kill US soldiers, they're terrorists.

When we negotiate with them, they're insurgents or nationalists.

There's no contradiction.

[demoman123]

22. Shiite militia deploys in Iraq holy city amid reports of clashes nearby

What do you make of this?

1 hour, 44 minutes ago

NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - Shiite Muslim radical leader Moqtada Sadr's militia was out in force as pilgrims flocked to this Iraqi holy city amid reports of clashes with US troops in the adjacent shrine town of Kufa.

A Sadr aide said members of his banned Mehdi Army had repulsed the US force with assistance from local tribesmen.

But a spokesman for the US-led coalition said he had no immediate reports of a clash in Kufa, a radical stronghold where Sadr normally delivers the sermon at the main weekly prayers.

"Clashes took place in Kufa, on the east bank of the river (Euphrates), and we seized a Humvee that was abandoned there," Sadr spokesman Qais al-Khazaali told a press conference.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&e=5&u=/afp/20040419/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_shiites_sadr_najaf_040419180949

[saigon68]

23. kick