The storm is really breaking on shrubco tonight eh?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

Bizarre, still unexplained story of British commandoes dressed as Arabs, firing on Iraqis, with a car full of explosives, captured and imprisoned by Iraqis, then violently "liberated" from those same Iraqi "allies" by military force:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/09/19/iraq.main/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4262336.stm



Bush official arrested in fallout from Abramoff investigation:



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091901859.html

A hard rain's gonna fall.

[Bouncy Ball]

1. Yep.

And hi!

:hi:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. Hey hey. We're still due for some German food soon!

[Bouncy Ball]

11. ....

Not if you don't pick a date we're not!

I long ago concluded you simply didn't like us.

But we still like you!

:hi:

[deadparrot]

2. But will it get any airtime?

:shrug:

[More Than A Feeling]

3. Sick, looks like the lid is about to blow off of some serious

repression.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. Reminds me of the end of 'Casino' when the mob bosses are convening

while being investigated.

"When these guys were looking at up to 25 years just for skimming casino profits, you know some people were gonna get clipped."

[whistle]

6. That is major for both Bush and Blair, creating a false enemy....

...to win domestic support for their war. This is like the Nazis setting fire to the Reichstag Building and blaming the communists.


<snip>
Reichstag Fire
Initial situation
Hitler is Chancellor but Nazis are only a minority in the government. They crucially control the Ministry of the Interior of Prussia (Prussia had been brought under direct rule the previous summer as the result of an emergency decree by Hindenburg, the President). This gives control of the police in two thirds of Germany to the Nazis.

What happened
On the 27th February the Reichstag is empty as it had been in recess since December. At around 20:30 one of the caretakers checks the building and finds nothing unusual. At 20:50 a postman is passing the entrance to the session chamber and notices nothing unusual.
At 21:05 a student sees a man carrying a burning brand on the first floor. By 21:14 the fire alarm is received by the local fire station and the firemen are in the building by 21:24 but fires are breaking out everywhere. At 21:27 there is a huge explosion and the great chamber is enveloped by flames. In the rear of the building a half naked dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe is discovered and arrested. He claims to have done it as "a protest".

Hitler and Goring arrive on the scene. Goring at once accuses the communists. The next day the aging President signs a decree which allows the nazis to suspend freedom of speech which they use to ban virtually the entire opposition press. Communists are arrested wholesale though the party is not banned until after the elections so that the left vote will remain split.


Did the communists do it?
Torgler, the chairman of the Communist deputies to the Reichstag and a number of other communists are arrested including several Bulgarians. There is absolutely no evidence that they were involved and at the trial bought by the Nazis collapsed some months latter the prosecution case collapsed for this reason.

<more>
<link> http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/hist/fire.html

[Nite Owl]

7. No one deserves it

more. Hope that rain washes them all away. It can't come any too soon.

[LibertyLou]

8. I can't get over how much that guy looks like Stephen Baldwin...

Sorry, Stephen...I think you are a fine actor, I really do...but it's too strange to leave uncommented.

[babylonsister]

9. I'm way overinformed. This happened awhile ago, like a day,

it's been posted, but the basic question is 'what does it mean'? I would like to know who did what to who, who fucked who, who fucked up beyond any resolution, who dropped the ball, whatever is the result, or will I ever hear about it? Then we'll talk...

[gasperc]

16. they just showed video of the incident on BBC cable

the story is very confusing, double crossing black ops?

[punpirate]

10. Yep, tomorrow, it wouldn't be out of place...

... to see "Bush Slips on Barney's Doo-Doo, Breaks Ass" :P

That might be a good day for indictments in the Plame case to come out.... :P

[KoKo]

12. Anyone hear about Safavian on CNN or MSNBC? What's shocking is this

How the hell does a 38 year old get to be in charge of the whole US Government's Procurements? Sheesh....

This guy was also a Norquist crony.

Until his resignation on the day the criminal complaint against him was signed, Safavian was the top administrator at the federal procurement office in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he set purchasing policy for the entire government.

[babylonsister]

19. Yes, I've heard of him, today maybe, in concert with Abramof. All

I can say is, I hope! And DeLay might be involved? I hope to hell this extension of all that is bad in this country is unraveling.

[Rowdyboy]

13. So British troops attacked a civilian Iraqi police department with tanks

and was attacked by an angry mob as they rescues two undercover agents.

Drip....drip....drip...drip...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. Keep the pressure on. Bush's Floodgate can't withstand exposure and sun.

[alarcojon]

15. So what's the sane, rational explanation for this "special

security task"? The only thing I can come up with is that they are trying to make the insurgency look worse than it actually is. Which seems like a drop in the bucket anyway.

:lookofpuzzlement:

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Devil's advocate

these two guys were trying to infiltrate the enemy, hence dressed as locals and carrying party flavors, not unheard off... and a role for Special Forces, so these boys are SAS...

I know even if this is the explanation.. the shit has hit the fan

[alarcojon]

18. This makes some sense

and I even guess that they would have to shoot some Iraqi civilians to successfully join the resistance. But what have we become?

[Jackpine Radical]

20. So why'd the Brits have to go in with tanks?

Couldn't they have just told the Iraqi authorities they had picked up a couple black-op guys? Sorry 'bout the cops that got killed, but you know...mistakes....There's no issue of blowing their cover, after all. Breaking someone out of the slammer with a tank squadron is likely to blow their cover, alright. That means this can't just be some kind of stupid mistake; the jailers & the Brits would seem to have to be genuinely in conflict.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Litle on Iraqi tradition

eye for an eye, I am not kiding the families of the police officers need these two guys dead. Smoothing this one was quite possibly out of the realm of possibity, hence the small riot and molotovs. These guys are out of theater by tonight, if they were trying to join the resistance, for a court martial... if they blew up their job... back to HQ, they will not be able to work in that theater ever again.

[jim3775]

21. We should also remember that the Iraqi police

have been heavily infiltrated by insurgents and the local militias. Also, the militias set up checkpoints to shake down the locals. Therefore, the UK soldires firing on them probably isn't because they are acting as "insurgents".

This "the insurgency is a fraud" stuff is silly.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

27. The problem with your theory... they are white dudes. How could

they infiltrate the resistance. They could "pass" as Arab playing dress up long enough to commit terrorist or insurgent acts or assassinate someone.

But how could they realistically expect to infiltrate the insurgent organization? I'm having difficulty buying.

[ecoflame]

22. Now - why on the BBC site

are these two gentleman's faces blurred out but on ? they aren't. Where's the clean shot come from?

I just luv this part: "The official said two unknown gunmen in full Arabic dress began firing on civilians in central Basra, wounding several, including a traffic police officer. There were no fatalities, the official said."

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. That confirms it, they are SAS Operators

you always blurr the faces... wanna bet al jazeera?

[ecoflame]

25. SAS operators

....the same involved in the murder of the "terrorist" who supposedly jumped the turnstile to get on the tube, no?

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. No those were MI5

Internal seurity

SAS, Special Air Service, British Comandos, their Green Berets or SEALS... quite an elite unit.. hmm explains the longer hair and beards

[Skidmore]

28. Some of them there ferign insurgents on the loose.

Gets a person thinking about how much of this insurgency is a */Blair production, with Rove scripting.

[KoKo]

29. Kick...a lot of folks might have missed this..........

:kick: