Is the British "jail break" a tipping point? Iraq is now a clusterfuck.

[yellowcanine]

It seems to me that the fighting in Basra yesterday between British forces and Iraqi police, Shia militia and God knows who else, may be a tipping point in the Iraq war. Now it is clear, if it wasn't before, that this is a war between an occupying force and the occupied - at least in Basra (and probably in the Sunni triangle as well). Who is still "on our side" in Iraq besides the Quislings? The Kurds? At least it is safe to say that Iraq is now offially a Bush clusterfuck of gigantic proportions.

[mike_c]

1. same as it ever was....

It's been a cluster fuck from day one....

[mattclearing]

2. Is it getting major tv coverage yet?

I missed it on the Early Show this morning.

[yellowcanine]

4. I don't know about TV but it made front page of the WP.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091900572.html

[mattclearing]

14. Surprising, with all the space devoted to the Redskins game.

:D

[opihimoimoi]

3. Blame those GOP koolade drinkers for voting the dufus in

This incident reveals dark ops and mega fuck ups...

[emald]

5. klusterfuck now?

This has been a huge klusterfuck from the word go, from the moment that * decided he needed to avenge his papa. It's just that the events are finally proving the administrations lies.

[wtmusic]

6. Falseflaggate is going to be a tough one

to talk their way out of

[thebigidea]

8. yeah, but it'll be super-easy to ignore

maybe some of the UK press will ask questions, but it sure as hell won't be reported here. Remember the guy running his own prison in Afghanistan? Exactly.

[wtmusic]

10. hey tbi, glad you're back

now keep a handle on it :hi:

(listen to wtmusic, who has full control of his DU habits :crazy:)

[thebigidea]

11. never really gone, just don't post much other than oneliners now and again

the election totally squashed all of that insane energy that was poured into graphics/video/sound collage. All that is going into nonpolitical stuff now.

Next election, though - look out!

[Captain Hilts]

7. The Wash Post story completely missed the significance of this event.

It's going to be used to destroy what little legitimacy we have claimed in being there.

It's a turning point.

The UK didn't go after those troops like that because it was just Willie an' Joe. They were special operations guys that had to be retrieved.

[iconoclastNYC]

9. BFEE says : "Now the mission is accomplished!"

Call me a conspiracy nutjob but more reason for permanent military bases (staging ground for Neocon Middle Eastern Adventure 2.0 (Syria), 3.0 (Iran), and more fat contracts to thier cronies.

You have to listen to Majority Report (9/19)....great episode.

[cranston36]

12. Police Station

American Ambassador John Bolton has been insisting at the United Nations that governments and military forces are not held accountable for terrorist acts. The wording has been reportedly in defense of Israel’s practice of targeting Islamic politicians for assassination and then carrying out the killings with regular army, police or undercover troops.
Ambassador Bolton’s insistence on this point was illustrated on September 19, 2005 by the British Army in Basra, Iraq.
The incident started when two gunmen dressed as Arabs fired on civilians in central Basra and wounded several of them. One of the wounded was a traffic police officer.
The two gunmen ran away but were captured shortly after and were taken in for questioning. The gunmen revealed they were British Marines carrying out a "special security task."
At that point they were apparently taken to a safe house in order to protect them as the police station was becoming the scene of a riotous mob intent on getting at the men.
That is when the British commander, Brigadier John Lorimer apparently began to panic. He stated, "From an early stage I had good reason to believe the lives of the two soldiers were at risk."
He claims that in the short time between becoming aware that the ‘special security task’ had gone awry and the attack he ordered on the police station the UK military went "to exhaustive lengths" to secure the freedom of the soldiers.
Lorimer then ordered an attack on the police station.
When the troops arrived they were attacked with fire-bombs and rockets by the mob intent on destroying the police station themselves.
The British stormed the station after an armored vehicle destroyed the outlying wall.
It was then discovered the two men were not in the jail and were fetched from a neighboring house.
Apparently the British force consisted of more than 10 tanks backed by helicopters.
Video of the incident details dozens of Iraqis surrounding the armored vehicles and throwing gas bombs and rocks at them.
One photograph I saw showed a burning British soldier desperately trying to escape from the hatch of his ‘Warrior’ armored vehicle.
Immediately British Defense Secretary John Reid started trying to muddy the waters, "It became obvious that the police were not doing what we would expect them to do, what was required under the law for them to do, which is to hand over the soldiers to us, and what apparently they were told by their own ministry of the interior to do."
It remains to be seen if anymore ‘special security tasks’ will be ordered by the British High Command. It brings into question the entire practice of ‘special security tasks’. Under the international Geneva Convention military personnel apprehended carrying out military tasks while wearing civilian clothes are considered spies and may be hung by the neck until dead for their crimes.
John Bolton would like to change that.

[Igel]

15. Link? Or at least source. n/t

[bluedawg12]

13. And there was this:$1 billion of our tax money missing

Towards the bottom of same article.

"Elsewhere in Iraq, anti-corruption investigators said they expected charges against the country's former defense minister, Hazim Shaalan, in the alleged embezzlement of more than $1 billion that was meant to help rebuild the country's security forces"

We are so used to cluster fucking oursleves that there is no indignation in our nation- how much good could 1 billion do here?

[applegrove]

16. It is an old British trick to infiltrate the "gorillas" and make them

insecure. So they would naturally have undercover people doing that. They scare the "gorillas" and the system breaks down as "gorillas" start acting with more caution.

Why they ended up in a firefight with local police station - i do not know. Could be mistaken identity.

And then - once arrested - of course the tanks showed up.

The british always do this when faced with a network of insurgents. Typical british war play.