Iraqi soldier dies of poison (watermelon) near Mosul

[leftchick]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-06/01/content_3032386.htm

TIKRIT, Iraq, June 1 (Xinhuanet) -- An Iraqi soldier died and 12 others were hospitalized after they ate poisonous watermelon near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a statement said Wednesday.

"An unknown driver of a truck full of watermelon gave late Tuesday poisonous watermelon to Iraqi soldiers on several checkpoints spread along the road from north of Sharqat to Hamam al-Alil town, near the northern Iraq city of Mosul," US-Iraqi liaison office in Tikrit said in the statement.

"A soldier died and 12 others were evacuated to Mosul Hospital,"the statement said.

Iraqi authorities are investigating the incident, it added.

[Cha]

1. Oh dear..

I thought at first it was something poisonous in the soil ..not deliberately done.

Can't even eat the food unless it's military rations.

[neweurope]

2. Can't trust any news these days - and the Jews poisoned the wells...

-------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Codeine]

12. What does that mean?

Is it a Biblical thing?

[neweurope]

13. No, not biblical... (not only) in the middle ages the slaughter

of Jews was justified time and again with the accusation that the Jews had poisoned the wells and killed babies for religious purposes. After your government told us years ago that Iraqis had thrown babies out of incubators they are telling us now that they are poisoning the righteous with food. I don't believe it - until some years have passed and I have heard more. Your government is not only lying - it even states openly that it is. "Psy op" or whatever they call it. Don't believe a word they say.

------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[nightfox02]

3. Wow...now that is hatred

Whoever thought instead of flowers it would be poisonous watermelons...

Like I said in another post..you can script this stuff...Bush really is an idiot for believing we were naive enough to think that they would welcome us with rose pedals...

I dont know about the rest of you guys but I called his b.s. from day one. It is all to convenient that IRAQ of all places would be targeted right after 9/11...

And now instead of WMD's its freedom we are after? Get the f**K out of here as Chris Rock would say.... Bush is the master of his own revisionist history...

[Cha]

4. Sociopaths can do

that with ease..

"Bush is the master of his own revisionist history..."

Welcome to DU, nightfox!

[mahina]

7. And we're spreading freedom in Venezuela too!

Hey, I wonder if the victims of genocide in Darfur could use any of that.
Welcome to DU!

[cliss]

5. OK, I will add this one to my list of casualties.

Dead: Iraq Soldier

Name: Unknown

Cause of Death: poisoned watermelon.

[dArKeR]

6. I hope they investigate it better than the DOD or Media Whores

investigated this lie! "wading into a crowd" but the bomb was inside this parked car!

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050530/481/bag10905301128&g=events/iraq/082701iraqplane

The two bombers struck shortly after 9 a.m. in Hillah, 60 miles south of the capital, wading into a crowd of about 500 policemen who were demonstrating outside the mayor's office to protest a government decision to disband their special forces unit, police Capt. Muthana Khalid Ali said.

The bombers staggered the detonations to maximize casualties, said Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman, who was contacted by telephone in Baghdad. Policeman Jiwad Kadhim Hamid said the explosions took place about 100 yards away from each other and about a minute apart.

"I just saw a ball of fire and flying pieces of flesh. After that, confused policemen started firing into the air," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050530/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

1. The bomb was obviously inside this car. A child could figure that out.
2. Note how the bomb inside the car raised the roof of the car!!
3. As the eyewitness reports a 'ball of fire', I doubt a body strapped "suicide bomb" could be that large. (my opinion.)
4. How could a body strapped bomb on a person in the middle of 500 men explode and char this car? The walls would be charred too.
5. Discounting all the other lies and the Whore WH/DOD change their story into a 'suicide car bomb', where is the FBI investigating this vehicle for DNA, bomb fragments?

What aWol and Rumsfuk are doing in Iraq is blaming everything on suicide bomber to cover up the incompence/"Lies of Slaughter Invasion" of the WH and the DOD!

I believe the car was empty too, no rebel inside. Look how it's "parked" next to the wall. 1. a car wouldn't be driven so close to a wall. 2. the "suicide driver" would surely swerve into the crowd just before detonation.

[Igel]

8. You might be right, but your chief pieces of evidence

are lack of evidence and inference.

We have some facts from the story. 500 policemen (roughly, at least), in a crowd. Two bombers. Deaths.

The text says the "bombers" waded into the crowd, although I think the writer is unlikely to have been there, whether before, during, or after the events. He may be overgeneralizing from an incident report that didn't say much about the verb of motion. Let's tentatively assume the writer's correct, but acknowledge that his story's derivative, i.e., based on somebody else's report, compounding the possibility of a mistake.

But I lack a terse way of saying "slowly driving a car through a crowd"; the police certainly would have impeded traffic flow. "Wade" may mean just this, and be ambiguous, chosen by a stringer on the scene that's a non-native speaker of English, by the reporter, by an army sargeant, or by the writer of the media version of the incident report. For all I know, that might be the verb I'd've chosen.

The article states there were two bombs/bombers. Assuming the picture's correct, a different article (one probably based from being on the scene after the fact, not written in Baghdad or New York) was obviously in the car shown in the picture. There may be a second car behind the photographer. This means the first writer is almost certainly incorrect, but doesn't help us find where the information was corrupted in the chain of transmission.

There's nothing saying the bomb was strapped on the bomber. It's an inference from "wade", and inherits all the uncertainties in our interpretation of that word.

The observation that the car is in an unlikely position is certainly reasonable. But speculation that the bomber may have driven along a side because there was room, and he didn't want to incite suspicion isn't unreasonable. Or the car may have been moved--while I don't see clear signs of it, I do see some tire marks that might indicate movement, and I know I'd like to clear the road in that situation. It's like wondering why all those freeway accidents we see in the morning so frequently occur on the shoulder.

I also wouldn't expect to see pictures of the FBI folk, even not knowing the SOP for the area.

I seem to be ranting a lot today about inferences and implicatures of dubious quality. Maybe that's a good thing, trying to be fact-, not inference-, based from time to time. I like having contradictions pointed out, but in this case the contradictions aren't worth the indignation.

[dArKeR]

17. You could apply for a political "Spin" job!

[hector459]

9. I hope this isn't true. If it is, we need to bring our troops home now!!

We can't win against an insurgency that will poison the food and water.

[progressivebydesign]

10. That's just unbelievably sad. n/t

[Karmakaze]

11. Hmmm I have to wonder...

if this is in fact a protest against corruption of the occupational autorities and their collaborators.

The story says an Iraqi driving a truck full of watermellon GAVE poisoned watermellons to soldiers at various checkpoints. Is it possible that in fact the soldiers TOOK the watermellons as some sort of tax?

A truck full of watermellons sounds like a farmer on his way to market - why would he give his stock away so freely, especially considering how impoverished Iraqis have become since the invasion?

Could it be this Iraqi was sick of having half his stock seized for "inspection" at roadblocks?

[pinniped]

14. No more flowers, they have moved on to watermelons.

.

[hedgetrimmer]

15. Poisoned melons fell Iraqi troops

Associated Press in Mosul
Thursday June 2, 2005
The Guardian

~snip~
Several Iraqi soldiers were treated in hospital in northern Iraq after eating intentionally poisoned watermelons, the US military said yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel Andre Hance did not say what the watermelons had been poisoned with, how many soldiers had been poisoned or when it happened, but he said the troops had since been released from hospital.

"There was a gentleman recently delivering free watermelons to some traffic control points along the road. Soldiers became ill after eating them and called ahead to detain the driver," Col Hance said.

The soldiers had been manning checkpoints between Sharqat, 160 miles north-west of Baghdad, and Hammam al-Alil, 50 miles further north towards Mosul.

...more
link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1497062,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
wow!

[sasquatch]

16. Where the hell did he get the watermelons, that's what I want to know?

On a side note:
:9
MMMM....Watermelon
:9

[leftchick]

18. No mention of the Iraqi who died from the poisoning

Or did I miss it?

[Algorem]

19. exploding motorcycles,poisoned watermelons,yeah they're almost beat

[Moderator]

20. kick

[pf99]

21. Insurgents using poison melons

Just when you think it can get any worst

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1497062,00.html

"There was a gentleman recently delivering free watermelons to some traffic control points along the road. Soldiers became ill after eating them and called ahead to detain the driver," Col Hance said.

The soldiers had been manning checkpoints between Sharqat, 160 miles north-west of Baghdad, and Hammam al-Alil, 50 miles further north towards Mosul.

"We don't know yet what the watermelons were injected with, but investigations are ongoing now to try and determine what poison was used," the officer said.

[gordianot]

22. Remember "Vietnamization", good example of "Iraquization".

Yes sir we are winning the war, the insurgency is diminished, Iraq will never degenerate into a Civil War. Democracy is on the upswing in Iraq as Iraqi's reclaim their country to become the model for Mid Eastern Democracy. As was recently claimed in March, Bush got it right. :crazy:

[marmar]

23. Poor Iraqi forces...

They're being fed poison melons by insurgents and toxic bullshit by Americans.

[gordianot]

24. And when the shit hits the fan how many will need to immigrate to the US?

History repeats itself. Iraqi military and police is about the only work available.

[ConfuZed]

25. People still eat stuff others that they don't know hand to them...

Pot luck scares me :P

[htuttle]

26. Just imagine what Benny Hill could do with that headline

:spank:

[mcscajun]

27. Good move. You're in a foreign country...you're not wanted there...

...so Naturally you eat the free food offered to you.

Makes sense. Not.

[OKNancy]

41. Iraqis

From the story:

Several Iraqi soldiers were treated in hospital in northern Iraq after eating intentionally poisoned watermelons, the US military said yesterday.

[mcscajun]

43. I sit corrected.

My error.

[atommom]

28. The sad thing is, I immediately thought of Gallagher...

But seriously, it pays to be suspicious of food offered by possible enemies. According to my family history, I had an ancestor who died after eating a poisoned pie that was given to him by a nice Confederate woman, during the Civil War....

[Karmakaze]

33. Maybe it wasn't "offered", which is why they weren't suspicious?

Could it be that the insurgents noticed that farmers often have parts of their crops siezed for "inspection" whenever they try to ship it to market?

Perhaps the corruption of the occupation forces has finally caught up to them?

[Fire Walk With Me]

29. Are these the flowers and open arms Bush said we'd be welcomed with?

[cornermouse]

30. On the radio the other day.

Citizens are getting mad because they don't have electricity that they can depend on and yet they look at the American camps and see continual non-stop electricity, air conditioning, etc.

And you wonder why they're starting to hate us?

[progressivebydesign]

36. You forgot to mention the 8 MILLION DOLLAR dining hall with marble floors.

Read about that the other day. It was built in the place of the mess hall explosion a few months ago. While I suppose they argued that it was to make them forget that the mess tent blew up, I would think the 8 million dollars would be better spent PROPERLY caring for the troops injured in attacks like that, or the dependents of those killed.

[cornermouse]

38. I didn't see that one.

Not that I don't want our guys to have air conditioning, because I do, but when average Iraqis can look at our camps, see the lights, hear the air conditioners humming and can't keep their own lights on and are trying to do without air conditioning during summer in the desert...

Well, you can see how that would create hatred.

[daleo]

31. I think melons can be a source of e coli

It may be jumping to conclusions, that the melons were poisoned. The claim that they were being handed out for free does tend to make poisoning more likely though.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

32. yeah and you can get salmonella from melons that aren't cleaned

properly. I agree that it might be jumping to conclusions.

• Salmonella and melons: Melons are grown on the ground, which means that their skin can become contaminated by animal or human waste, or that contamination can be transferred from the harvester’s hands to the melon. In particular, a cantaloupe’s netted exterior creates the perfect surface to which a pathogen called Salmonella Poona can cling. This means that the knife used to halve a melon can transfer any salmonella there might be on the melon’s skin directly to the flesh. This is why health-safety experts recommend scrubbing a melon (particularly cantaloupes) with tepid water and a soft brush, rinsing well. Likewise, wash surfaces that have come in contact with the melon, such as cutting board and hands

http://www.cookingvillage.com/cv/kw/tiptionary_results/0,1755,sLang%3Dus&sLet%3DM&iSCat%3D365,00.html

[Lone_Star_Dem]

34. Very true

And the contamination could have been from any other bacteria that was clinging to the outside of the melon when it was cut. All things considered, e.coli is quite likely since they are suffering from sanitation issues in Iraq.

It's still good advice to not take candy from strangers. Under the best of circumstances the world is full of whack jobs, and Iraq is definitely not the best of circumstances.

[radwriter0555]

35. ESPECIALLY in a nation where they no longer have running water and clean

and sanitary conditions, SINCE BUSH BOMBED THEM TO SMITHEREENS.

[progressivebydesign]

37. I worked at a home for kids who were all sickened by watermelons.

It was the ecoli thing. Luckily I don't like watermelon... but I do wash all fruits and veggies before eating them, even if you don't eat the outside..

[Scurrilous]

40. Watermelon linked to E. Coli outbreak

http://www.unichef.com/news/news08100.htm

<snip>

"According to a July 31 Associated Press report, contaminated watermelon may have caused some of the more than 40 cases of food poisoning linked to a Sizzler restaurant, the Milwaukee health commissioner said Monday. Restaurant customers who ate watermelon were eight times more likely to be sick that those who did not, Health Commissioner Seth L. Foldy said. At least 42 people became ill in July from E. coli bacteria that health officials have traced to the Sizzler restaurant on Milwaukee's southside. One child, a 3-year-old girl, died. Another victim has filed a lawsuit. Foldy said health officials are not blaming the watermelon for making people sick, but rather bacteria that may have been transferred to the melon. That means the bacteria on the outside of the melon could have been transferred to the inside when it was cut, he said. The bacteria was present for more than a day because people were contaminated on different days, Foldy said. Tests of items from the restaurant found a raw beef product that tested positive for E. coli. The Sizzler has been closed since Wednesday."

[KoKo]

39. "Poisoned Pita's" next. When one is desperate...one resorts to creative

means. "Suicide Bombers" get to be old news...and Agatha Christie was read in Iraq. Her book "Appointment in Sammarah." :shrug:

[OKNancy]

42. Iraqi soldiers!

Come on everyone, read the article, not just the snip above.