Is there a complete news blackout from Iraq going on right now?

[NNN0LHI]

No news at all. Are there any reporters from any independent news organizations over there? Anyone else notice the complete lack of news, good or bad coming from Iraq for a couple of days now? Nothing.

Don

[jenk]

1. there were attacks today, at least 5 wounded

but very little news about it

[RummyTheDummy]

2. I found this little gem at Drudge today...

http://www.lakesunleader.com/display/inn_news/news1.txt

[Laughing Mirror]

4. mystery illness, is it?

radiation from the looted (unprotected) nuclear facilities?

[revcarol]

3. Yahoo had great pics of anti-troop protests.

No articles to go with them.

[grasswire]

5. well....

...Japanese journalists were manhandled and detained by troops just two days ago. Film confiscated.

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

6. news link on Japanese reporter who filmed US troops go shooting madly

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6826505%255E1702,00.html

US troops 'manhandle' reporter
From correspondents in Tokyo
July 28, 2003

A JAPANESE reporter was manhandled and briefly detained by US troops in Baghdad after filming their weekend raid on a house in search for ousted president Saddam Hussein, Japanese press reports said.

Kazutaka Sato, 47, was held in an arm-lock, thrown to the ground and kicked by several US soldiers Sunday when he was filming the bodies of Iraqis being removed from a car which was shot up in the raid, the reports said.

Sato suffered slight injuries to his face and hands, the Kyodo news agency and the newspaper Asahi reported from Baghdad. He had his hands tied and was detained for about one hour.

When members of the Western media approached, Sato was released and his camera, which had been confiscated, was handed back to him, the Asahi said.

more..............

[NNN0LHI]

8. Found this on the Yahoo Iraqi slideshow from today

An Iraqi celebrates as a U.S. Army supply truck blazes on a road near the town of Taji, northeast of the capital Baghdad July 30, 2003. U.S. forces kept up the hunt for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) as an Iraqi crowd gloated over an apparent roadside bomb attack that gutted a U.S. truck. Photo by Faleh Kheiber/Reuters

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

7. U.S. Resorts To Taking Civilains Hostages In Iraq. Breaks Geneva Conv laws

U.S. Resorts To Taking Civilains Hostages In Iraq

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54345-2003Jul27.html

BAGHDAD -- Over the past six weeks a small but intense war has been conducted in the mud-hut villages and lush palm groves along the Tigris River valley, fought with far different methods than those used in the campaign that toppled president Saddam Hussein.

As Iraqi fighters launched guerrilla strikes, the U.S. Army adopted a more nimble approach against unseen adversaries and found new ways to gather intelligence about them, according to dozens of soldiers and officers interviewed over the last week.

Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: "If you want your family released, turn yourself in." Such tactics are justified, he said, because, "It's an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info." They would have been released in due course, he added later.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54345-2003Jul27.html

Geneva Conventions. Protocol 1

http://www.globalissuesgroup.com/geneva/protocol1.html

Art. 75.

2. The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilian or by military agents: (a) violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular: (i) murder; (ii) torture of all kinds, whether physical or mental; (iii) corporal punishment; and (iv) mutilation;

(b) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, enforced prostitution and any form or indecent assault; (c) the taking of hostages; (d) collective punishments; and (e) threats to commit any of the foregoing acts.

http://www.globalissuesgroup.com/geneva/protocol1.html

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

Once again, the Bush administration holds that only the rest of the worldhas to abide by International Law, not Bush.

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. The embeds have gone home...

...and the major outlets have gone 9-5 on the story.

If it breaks outside of office hours, it's held over to next day, when it's liable to be bumped by fresher news.

[TeeYiYi]

10. Link to an informative blog . . .

http://www.xymphora.blogspot.com/

TYY

[starroute]

13. Another useful link

War in Iraq
http://www.iraqwar.ru/?userlang=en

Current stories include "Grenade attacks wound 3 US soldiers in Iraq {July 30}," "This guerrilla war is likely to last a generation," and "Military Families Speak Out." From the last of these:

My son called me this morning early from Baghdad. The connection was quite poor. He told me he is sick -- once again he's ill. This time it's a respiratory illness, a *cold.* I told him to go to the doctor. And he said he would. But our call was cut short when we lost the connection. According to (this article from the Springfield News-Leader,) other soldiers in Baghdad are suffering respiratory problems. And Keane says there are no investigations yet. My son's breathing sounded labored and he sounded weak. I emailed the commander's wife with the article and my concerns. Unlike the previous commander who led them in the invasion, the new one seems to be a flag-waving Bushie; and his wife makes no effort to communicate when contacted. The previous commander's wife relayed my concerns, and they were dealt with promptly by Cmdr XXXXX.

[TeeYiYi]

11. Another link to scandalous treatment of Iraqis . . .

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&e=8&u=/afp/20030728/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_raids_030728140406

TYY

[ElsewheresDaughter]

12. nothing to see here...move along