WP: In Brazen Roundup, 56 Vanish From Baghdad

[kskiska]

BAGHDAD, June 5 -- "Turn back," a friend told Haji Abu Shamaa as he walked Monday morning toward his money-changing shop in the Karkh neighborhood of central Baghdad, a mile north of the heavily guarded Green Zone. "The Interior Ministry police are rounding up people."

But Shamaa walked on, right into a swift, coordinated operation unfolding within sight of Iraq's Ministry of Justice. Gunmen in police uniforms and ski masks had cordoned off the street and were swiftly shoving captives, four or five at a time, into a dozen waiting pickup trucks. Fifteen minutes later, the trucks were gone, and so were 56 people.

The roundup displayed all the signs of an unrelenting kidnapping epidemic in Baghdad. Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, more than 400 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq, but thousands more Iraqis have been snatched from the streets, often by people wearing knockoff police uniforms that are easily purchased at local markets.

Many people, like Shamaa's friend, believe the kidnappers are actually police. Usually the hostages are held for ransom. Sometimes they are killed because of their faith or ethnicity.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/05/AR2006060500482.html

[izzie]

1. I bet it was done with men in our uniforms and with our guns

I read that story and it really is time we left. We have by now placed guns and uniforms in all parts of the country so I am sure they can all fight it our for them self. I am sure the people who make guns have done very well.I think that is a job we are keeping.

[truth2power]

6. I was reading last night..

an article by Justin Raimondo: "The Meaning of Haditha." I don't know if we're even allowed to refer to him on this board. I don't remember why. Sorry. I can't keep up anymore.

Anyway, the mods can delete this if it's against the rules, but this snip, about the so-called Salvador Option (a la that worthless thug, Negroponte) is relevant to this post:

"Last year, I wrote about the "El Salvador option" – the emerging strategy of this administration in fighting a losing war, which amounts to throwing off all constraints and simply terrorizing the Iraqi people into cowed submission . We are now seeing the results of this policy of desperation in practice. Haditha is not just an "isolated incident," but evidence of a new strategic orientation by the U.S. military – a scorched-earth policy designed to stave off the humiliating prospect of impending defeat." (emphasis added).

OH. MY. GOD. It sickened me to read this! We....let me say that again...WE...have turned that country into a hell on earth! May God(ess) have mercy on the souls of the American people for the sins we have committed, and continue to commit, there!

[izzie]

7. I think this has been going on from reading around the internet

We keep getting hints and I think the Bush has no morals at all. He will say and do anything to keep power. He has always been sort of off the wall. It often happens. At the end of WW2 we can read of wild things that our side did after they saw the death camps. One can hardly blame them but they also were not made to pay up for it. When I was married to a service man they used to talk of things that were really done wrong with the older guys that had been in WW2 but not in the history books. I know Germans that had been in WW2 and they said the same. In such times things are done and when you are not winning or been there for years I think we can count on it going on. Bush and Co. has almost said that anything goes as look how they have over looked the laws we have used for years.

[brokensymmetry]

2. Civil war? At least that.

It's way past time to get out.

[Blue_Tires]

3. ttt n/t

[saigon68]

4. "FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH"

</sarcasm>

[Barad Simith]

5. They need to outlaw those knockoff police uniforms

This kind of thing detracts from all the good news coming out of Iraq.