"Protest in Iraq and you will be shot" - US forces in Tikrit today

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=specialCoverageNews&storyID=4002388&pageNumber=0

Tanks Roll to Warn Tikritis Off Pro-Saddam Rallies
Tue December 16, 2003 12:36 PM ET

By Robin Pomeroy

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Tanks rolled out on to the streets of Tikrit
Tuesday, as a message that the U.S. army would not tolerate shows of
support for Saddam Hussein in the captured president's home town.


U.S. troops forcibly broke up at least four attempted pro-Saddam
demonstrations and three soldiers were wounded when a bomb went off as
their Humvee patrolled the streets.

(snip)

An hour later, a handful of military vehicles returned, one carrying the U.S.-backed regional governor Hussein al-Jaburi, while a recording of his voice boomed a warning to would-be Saddam loyalists.

"Any demonstration against the government or coalition forces will be
fired upon," Jaburi's voice said, according to an army interpreter.
"This is a fair warning."

...more...

[La_Serpiente]

1. For a second there

I thought this was supposed to go in the Israeli/Palestine room :crazy: Oh, I guess we have our "Peace Tanks" :crazy:

[bluestateguy]

2. I will support this on one condition...

the same policy is applied to pro-Confederate rallies in the South. They are supporting a treasonous regime right?

[BlueEyedSon]

3. I love the smell of LIBERATION in the morning!

[jmaier]

4. Aren't our efforts

to bring Democracy just grand.

[KG]

5. winning hearts and minds

iraq will never be pacified.

iraq for the iraqis - all foriegners out now!

[maddezmom]

6. frightening message

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. So how does this help establish "democracy"?

I think they should reconsider this policy.

[tom_paine]

8. Hey, they are getting some valuable practice for Imperial Amerika 2020

Or am I being too optimistic?

2010 perhaps?

[Malva Zebrina]

9. Tch

so sad--so out of control. All Bush's fault for lack of insight or perhaps, intelligence--(meaning brain power().

So typical of a bully--just run em over--we got the stronger humvees and all of the equiptment to run em over--they only have skooters or ordinary cars-

threaten them,their wives and children in their own homes by breaking down the doors and shouting at them with pointed gun--

make them so scared they will fall down on their knees begging your forgiveness for somehthing they know not what they did but are willing to go down on their knees to do so to save their lives as well as the lives of their wife and children.

So sad. This is Bush's Christian "human race"--the conscripted thugs, the bullies-the murderers following his sociopathic, ignorant foreign policy of kill, kill kill--women and children and old men--and all for his and his buds profit. All for his own power and his own overinflated ego. So sad :cry:

Meanwhile--it is Xmas in the White HOuse. And there are thousands invited to a party and Laura is the hostess.

The huge tree is decorated with old ornaments of the old Bush regime-they are all the ornaments that Babs Bush, the old mother in law, once used when she was the pearled, queen in the White House. I think she may have threatened Laura if she did not use her ornaments--and Laura the dumbass frump just went ahead and did it as expected. She is absent a soul and easily intimidate.

Babs the babbler, will not mess up her "beautiful mind" with visions of the dead children her stupid and ignorant son killed in Afganistan and Iraq. She birthed a veritable monster--actually several of them , and the frumpy Laura--well all she has to do to smile the joker smile at the camera--no matter if she is a hospital looking at a dying six month old child, or in front of her uninspiring, uncreative, White House Xmas tree

Laura smiles that fake smile at the six month old , little baby, dying child under the oxygen tent as if to say--it just honky dory kid--everytning is joy, joy--I am posing for the photo op, so don't mind me --I am looking at the camera and smiling--and I am looking at you under your oxygen tent, smiling the joker smile because I am very aware that I am on stage for George and you are secondary to this effort--you mean nothing kid compared to my taking advantage of this very emotional photo op--actually I know nothing about your condition and you will be gone from my memory tommorrow, because I have some campaigning to do and some money to raise for George's next run for the presidency.And that, kid, is what is important to me right now, so they tell me and I believe them. You know I have raised more money on these luncheons than Dick--Cheny that is.

I hope George appreciates my efforts and thanks me--even if he does call me a lump, that is his way of telling me he loves me.

[petrock2004]

25. wow

:(

so sad, but... how true? photo ops are what this pResidency is built on. :(

very poingnant message tks

[sistersofmercy]

10. Ahhhhhh, the exporting of democracy, ain't that grand!

So, let me get this straight no rallies allowed but they're being forced into harboring their festering frustrations, perhaps pushed into organizing secret meetings for their support rather than public displays. Oh sure makes a great deal of sense to me. I suppose these people know about how anti-saddam demostrators felt.

[ithacan]

29. "democracy" Republican-style

first amendment zones and all that.

How dare these people go out and protest in support of a brutal homocidal maniac!

[VelmaD]

11. If I was feeling snarky...

I'd ask why they should be given any more freedom to assemble and protest than we've been getting here the last 3 years...if I was feeling snarky.

[Scott Lee]

12. And this surprises you....how?

[Jacobin]

13. And this repression of free speech is different from Saddam HOW?

Can't they at least give them "free speech zones" off somewhere like they do in Imperial Amerika?

[Military Brat]

14. This is nothing! Wait for the return of The Phoenix Project

I don't mean to be spreading rumors, so somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but a friend advised me this morning that the U.S. is going to institute a Phoenix Project in Iraq, similar to the one in Vietnam. This guy is very careful with his words, and I forgot to ask his source, so please take this post as just an "ear to the ground" item.

For those unfamiliar with the Phoenix Project, hold on to your a** with both hands: "Created by the CIA in Saigon in 1967, Phoenix was a program aimed at "neutralizing" — through assassination, kidnapping, and systematic torture — the civilian infrastructure that supported the Viet Cong insurgency in South Vietnam. It was a terrifying "final solution" that violated the Geneva Conventions and traditional American ideas of human morality." http://www.thememoryhole.org/phoenix/

IMHO, the true reason behind regime change was to remove Saddam in order to dominate Iraq, not to liberate it. Now we're beginning to see the signs of the real agenda in process.

Edited: I just checked the source, it's Seymour Hersh in the recent issue of The New Yorker. Elliott Abrams will be one of the main individuals in charge. The Phoenix Project for Iraq (or whatever its label will be) will be a covert operation, so it's separate and distinct from what's happening in Tikrit. Phoenix does not have unanimous support in the military. Rest assured, where you see the name Elliott Abrams, there will be very nasty tactics employed.

[Devlzown]

20. Makes sense to me.

They couldn't have the U.N. involved in Iraq because they have no intention of ever giving up control. Iraq is going to be home base for future operations in the middle east. Iraqis who defy the Americans will be dealt with harshly. This whole situation so far has been a cakewalk compared to what's coming.

[tom_paine]

26. Sounds like Imperial Amerika in 2050

Would the Busheviks do this to their own Imperial Subjects.

You betcha. Particularly by the time things have degraded and we have had the Mad Reign of Emperor George P. Caligula, IMHO.

The Busheviks don't think much more of the bottom 90% of Imperial Amerikan Subjects than Saddam thought of the Iraqis.

[ErasureAcer]

15. it is clear our troops don't know how to keep the peace

let's get our troops out and UN troops in

for the sake of the Iraqi people.

[DoYouEverWonder]

24. If not the UN, at least some International coalition

of PEACEKEEPERS.

Now that Bu$hCo has rid Iraq of a brutal dictator, that doesn't give us the right to act even worse.

There was a report earlier about one of the battles yesterday. The US troops went to the hospital and took all the Iraqi bodies. The Iraqis who lived there don't know what the troops did with them. Makes you wonder if KB&R have begun the digging for the mass graves.

[MrPrax]

16. Ironic really this liberty thing

While it might be understandable to suppress immediate 'support' for Saddam, there are certainly other ways of going about doing it.

But the whole project seems to have gotten off track somewhere and this type of brutality seems to be done for the 'peanut gallery' back home, as well as stimulate further instability.
These Iraqi supporters are passed off as further reason why the coalition can't simply 'cut' and 'run'.

[salinen]

18. Now all rallies by iraqi's

are called pro-Saddam rallies. This is pure lice infested horseshit from the media. Don't be fooled.

[arcane1]

23. try telling that to the braindead TV addicts...

they will see no discrepancy between these two statements:

1- Saddam was an evil man hated and feared by all of Iraq, and they will be grateful he is gone

2- Saddam has so much support in Iraq that we cannot allow so many people to gather together at one time to support him...

:crazy:

[Skittles]

17. "they will loose their jobs"

who the f*** wrote this???

[sistersofmercy]

19. "Out with the apprentice, in with the master." a saying used around

Baghdad for months according to some articles I've read. I should have added this to my other reply, oh well.

[redqueen]

21. Shut up and thank us for liberating you!

what a great way to win hearts and minds... just like here!

[a_random_joel]

22. I thought the Iraqis were "free" now...

How is this any different from their rule under Saddam?

"The beatings will continue until morale improves."

[dpibel]

27. But you don't understand!

They will be fired on in a very democratic and liberating way.

You can see that in the "fair warning." If the US wasn't interested in winning their hearts and minds, they'd get an unfair warning.

[Jacobin]

28. Kick

For the evening folk

[OneTwentyoNine]

30. Bush will adopt that policy in the US next week also.....

Thats it,we'll just shoot people who don't believe in our Neo-Con ways. No need to worry about first amendment zones,better to worry about getting your ass shot off.

David