Sean Paul

Your efforts on this site are magnificent, stupendous, marvellous and above all enlightening, at a time when darkness is all around.

Keep it up mister.

P.S. I need some method to ration my access to this site

Any other info on the number of casualties near Nasiriyah that was reported by Al Arabiya satellite TV as 103? Does that number hold up? Or do you think the number is higher or lower?

Thanks,

Chris

Try reading the reports from the beginning: here's the first post:

http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news066.htm

It reads like an inside account of the Russian military's assessment of the war. Looks like they expected an 8-10 day strategic air operation before committment of ground forces. Looks like they were wrong about that.

This site reported heavy fighting and casualties in Nazariya yesterday when the media was talking about how smooth everything was going. Interesting stuff.

Irak-guerre-Koweit-GB
LONDRES - 00:50 GMT
Koweït : ni troupe, ni financement pour la guerre en Irak

Kuwait announces it will provide no troops or financial assistance for the Iraq war. (Agence France Presse)

However, intercepted radio communications show that the actual number of coalition casualties is at least 55-70 troops killed and no less than 200 wounded. The emergency dispatch of the "Comfort" medical ship closer to the combat zone is a direct indication of serious casualties. The "Comfort" is expected to arrive to the southern tip of the Fao peninsula later tonight.

I think the truth will be made abundantly clear by noon tomorrow about the validity of this site.

Is anybody really surprised that this has escacalated so quickly? I wonder how long it will be before N.Korea starts sending reinforcements to Iraq.

ok, sombrehombre can keep his name :)

www.aeronautics.ru is refusing my connections.. what's the scoop?

I just looked at the russian site and there is a picture of two dead Iraqi soldiers in a pit. sticking out of the pit, next to the bodies is a white flag on a stick.

The local NBC affiliate in Boston tonight had night-vision footage of a battle on the Faw peninsula. It showed a building burst into flames and a soldier running out covered in flames and more soldiers running out after him. Apparently the British (or American?) troops stormed the building and it was booby trapped. It was pretty gruesome, even for the local news. Did anyone else see it or hear about it?

Also, there is another map of allied "controlled" territory here: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EC22Ak02.html

Your link is not working: typo? or maybe the site was taken down? --Lauren

Sean:
A way to maybe speed up your site and save bandwidth would be to get rid of your logo at the top of the page for now, and maybe just have a text header for a logo?

just trying to think of ways to help out...

you're doing a great job !!! :)

>>The Other Daryl
Damn it to many people have found out about the .ru site I think were (agonist/Dailykos)ing it. I hope it doesn't go down permently it really does seem to have a lot of good info on it. Maybe sean could ask to post copies of the report in the annex or some-such.

It's just hard to get through to, I get a lot of refused connections too, but keep trying.

Rather than draw comparisons with the Newhart show, just call me sombrehombre from here on out.

Someone should just mirror the site stateside. Volunteers?

The Russian site is refusing my connections as well. But others of you are getting through?

Check out http://www.annasach.net/images/iraq.html for some interesting weather satellite images of Iraq updated twice a day. This guy downloads them and analyzes them. Pretty good stuff ... (this isn't my site btw)

There is friction between Australia-which participates in the Iraq campaign with 2.000 men and aircraft—and the US command on ‘rules of engagement’. Australian pilots are permitted to use their personal discretion to ignore orders instructing them to bomb civilian targets. According to Australian Defense spokesman, the crew of a Hornet warplane refused yesterday to bomb a target assigned to them because the objective was not “verifiable”.

You military guys will know what that means.

http://www.corriere.it/ultima_ora/agrnews.jsp?id=20030324.ld073

I saw footage of the Faw battle on MSNBC's website but didn't realize those were British/American soldiers engulfed in flames.

I just went to an Edwards event, and he gave a quick speech, over the yells and drumbeats of the protesters outside, to the effect of
(1) Thank you to the young people for being involved in the campaign. this is your country, this is your campaign, and I need you.
(2) Those people outside are democracy in action. I disagree with them. I know I disagree with some of you in this room. But thank you for treating me with respect, and I ask that you treat them with the same respect. They have a legitimate point of view.
(3) I will not be giving a partisan speech tonight, because it's been a hard day. We lost American lives today, and this isn't the time for that.

It was moving.

He's on the intelligence committee. He knows what's happening. So the news is probably not very good.

Cheez, just keep trying.

Ozzie Defense spokesman is Mike Hannan.

Can anyone provide any feedback on the veracity of the 100 acre WMD factory. It's one hell of a factory to have overlooked (700yards x 700 yards) from a satellite, and I'm sure glad that the coalition military team happened to have a WMD assessment team at hand to provide rapid confirmation ;)

The local NBC affiliate in Boston tonight had night-vision footage of a battle on the Faw peninsula. It showed a building burst into flames and a soldier running out covered in flames and more soldiers running out after him. Apparently the British (or American?) troops stormed the building and it was booby trapped. It was pretty gruesome, even for the local news. Did anyone else see it or hear about it?

if it was what i saw, it was the british troops attacking a building. the reports i heard that the flashes were stun grenades (which i personally believe). the guy running out was an iraqi that apparently was pretty close to the grenade blast and was set on fire by the blast. the others coming out were other iraqis in the building. the guy on fire probably did not like the fire and was probably burned fairly good, but definatly not fatal looking

"Anyone else worried about the military refusing to take surrenders or taking a "kill them all and let God sort them out" attitude after these fake surrenders.
Yes. I am. That is why the Iraqis would go to some lengths to create these incidents. If their guys becoma afraid to surrender, more Americans wind up causualties even in situations where the Iraqis have no real committment. There are always rumors of this sort of thing and frequently real incidents. It takes a really disciplined army to just keep doing it right - being careful but getting all the real surrenders there are to be had. I hope we are up to it. And I wish the news media would present a less hysterical version. They seem to me to be actually encouraging the hardening of attitudes.

Thanks angel and hutch. Of course, I'm relying on a local newscaster so I will try to check it some more.

On the lighter side, Larry King describes the carrier Constellation as "bound for Baghdad".

Maybe it's part of the Shock and Awe campaign.

'if it was what i saw, it was the british troops attacking a building. the reports i heard that the flashes were stun grenades (which i personally believe). the guy running out was an iraqi that apparently was pretty close to the grenade blast and was set on fire by the blast. the others coming out were other iraqis in the building. the guy on fire probably did not like the fire and was probably burned fairly good, but definatly not fatal looking'

Actually my understanding was that the first guy running out of the building was a US soldier badly burned, and two other US soldiers were burned also, one of which was serious. It is being shown on BBC right now

the iraqi minister just said bush's ancestors "were living like animals in caves", while his ancestors were inventing culture.

and that they were observing the convention of geneva.

good times

"the guy on fire probably did not like the fire and was probably burned fairly good, but definatly not fatal looking."
I saw the film on CNN. The thing that bothered me was that on the showing that I saw they didn't even discuss the guy on fire. Have we become that hardened? Or (and this is what I suspect) did the CNN guy not even understand the importance of it?

Fred1 - The white flag next to the 2 Iraqi's in the hole is only a little troubling. I hope the real media does not get a hold of it. It could be all Iraqi holes have ready-made white flags to use as ruses. It could go two ways: we get more than a little slaughtered in the press or the press uses the ruse excuse to supress such photos.

Either way if fight or die mentality gets to the Iraqi enlisted - it will be the Japanese in the Pacific again. No surrender and kamikaze soldiers til they are all gone.

Well, I was debating going to the newsgroups to see what Venik was saying... guess I don't have to now. :)

For those who don't follow the military themed USENET newsgroups, Venik has been claiming that we suffer huge losses every time we get into a fight. During Kosovo, he posted repeated reports "validated by Russian intelligence" claiming that we were losing fighters (including lots of F-117s) left and right. The fact that all of our *real* losses (F-16 and a F-117, ISTR) were immediately plastered all over TV didn't matter... all of the other downed aircraft somehow left no recognizeable pieces, and there were no military funerals for pilots afterwards, but he still swore up and down that Russian intelligence had "confirmed" the losses.

If you're *really* bored, go check the newsgroup archives for posts under his name. Have fun.

Brian: per your comment about Peter Jennings and the mother of a POW. He doesnt have control over who they call. I noticed a couple of nights ago that he just takes guests and calls and doesnt really have much prep on any of them. He's just winging it.

I thought he handled it well. When he realized she couldnt handle it. He almost couldnt handle it himself. He choked up and paused during one question.

I think he's been doing one of the only good jobs on tv right now.

As James Joyce might say, you are fine smithy. Keep up the great job, Sean-Paul.

Now the Pentagon is saying chemical weapon depot report is "premature"

cnn was saying the guy on fire was an iraqi and that the troops were british, but it is definatly possible they could have thier info wrong.

i dont think it was a coalition troop because the other troops standing around initially withheld help, and while one was helping another had his gun trained on the guy on fire

Another finding of Russian violation of UN sanctions. This is getting very interesting. It certainly puts further strain on the Bush-Putin "friendship."

The British Tabloid Sun (Probably more trustworthy than Wolf Blitzer) is reporting that Iraq sent to Russia for surgeons to save Saddam's life. They also have exclusive photos of the WEAPONS OF MASS SEDUCTION:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,5-2003130253,00.html

News from the Oscars:
Everyone is dressed in black.
I'd say there's some significance attached to that.

Another item:
Los Angeles police charged and dispersed a crowd of several hundred peace demonstrators gathered in the vicinity of the Oscar ceremony. Eye witnesses report that some protesters were injured. At least one arrest. (Corriere)

So this Venik guy is a nut? Maybe he is, but he says he's just translating what's on iraqwar.ru. Oh, who knows. He (or iraqwar.ru) have been right about a few things, though.

Newhart show??? I never even thought of that.. ok, from now on I will be "raven"

girlmudgeon, that "rules of engagement" thingy means the Australian pilots are (probably) required to abort any attack if they cannot confirm an --absence-- of civilians or civilian property in the target area.. hope this clarifies things.

just saw the scene again on cnn, very different story this time from the last time. this time they say its american and the guy on fire was an american

Anyone notice that we're not seeing any more of the "rolling videophone" reports from the front lines?

Here's what the Russians had to say today about current news reporting from the front:

- - - - -
War in Iraq - situation in southern Iraq
http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news076.htm

March 23, 2003
www.iraqwar.ru

Work is paralyzed at the coalition press-center in Kuwait. Journalists are not able to get any information except for the hourly press communique from the command. A variety of reasons are cited by the military to reduce the number of trips into the combat zone for the journalists. All reports coming from the journalists attached to the coalition units are now being strictly censored by the military. All live broadcasts, as those seen during the first day of the war, are now strictly prohibited by a special order from the coalition command. The required time delay between the time news video footage was shot and the time it can be broadcast has been increased to a minimum of 4 hours.
- - - - -

Any lurking journalists care to comment?

As things bog down, facts are going to start disappearing, critical questions will get scarce, and we will see more appeals to emotion and patriotism.

It's not the way that America will run the war, it's the way that the war will run America.

Kent, the white flag next to the 2 Iraqis in a hole has already made it into the media..

and I am personally ready to believe that fake surrenders might well be the response to that.

Quid pro quo here, I think. Someone else observed that the Geneva Conventions seem to be a matter of convenience. That alas may be all too true.

I'm glad I found your site, and you are still able to handle the volume after the plug from On The Media. I know it's an easy lable, but the Aussies, Brits & us do not a "coalition" make. It doesn't deserve to be dignified.

The ABC in OZ is reporting two cruise missiles have landed in Turkey. No damage.

How is it not a "Coalition"? What term would you prefer?

And don't forget Poland.

On the lighter side, Larry King describes the carrier Constellation as "bound for Baghdad".

Maybe it's part of the Shock and Awe campaign

It will look mighty impressive coming up the Euphrates...

iraqwar.ru -- it has about ~70-80% accuracy rating on the facts to date.

That's according to my feeble attempts to verify via Japanese (NHK, FNN, and other news sources), Chinese (people's daily), American (usual suspects), BBC/Ind/Guard, SkyNews, Arabnews, PakNews, IRNA...and others.

Remember, they claim that they are getting most of their info from intercepted US Mil. Comms. -- which means that the "original" US plan was being broadcast, and then changed (whether by design or due to "targets of opportunity", or whatever).

Aeronautics.ru may be biased, and may or may not have a bad track record...but they are, apparently, only translating iraqwar's stuff.

So far, the best news I have gotten is from the Russians. I have been able to PREDICT news "updates" based on their site, when listening to AFRN, CNN, or watching NHK.

Keep up the good work Sean-Paul.
Doesn't it seem that the Iraqi's are using the lessons of Mogadishu straight from the bin Laden playbook? Show brutalized Americans on TV, hide behind women and children, and maximize civilian casualities in order to turn US and World Opinion against the war effort. I am afraid that things are going to get very ugly in the next few days.

Don McCrery:
Sean-Paul has already addressed the 'coalition' issue. In short, he feels that he would be doing a disservice to British and Australian forces by referring to forces in Iraq as 'American'.

My take:
See: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=coalition

It's a clear, concise, and commonly used description of the invading group. Using a another word would unnecessarily politicize straightforward reporting of the Iraqi conflict that Sean-Paul is doing so well.

That russian warblogger would be much more convincing with some rational thinking.

http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news076.htm

This stuff is scary, and some of it jives with reports scroured from "reliable" media.

Go back to the first report and read them straight through.

If your having trouble with dead links, keep refreshing till it comes up.

I realize that Dr. Gupta has too many white teeth. However, from the stand point of someone who deals with penetrating trauma on a daily basis, it was informative for two reasons. Data collected over the past several years revealed that these patients did poorly if transported, and an operation was delayed more than an hour so. Secondly, high tech imaging is not needed.
.....Great site

Not that world opinion needs help in turning against the US.

I have a friend in the 1st Ben 4th Mar 1st Mardiv. Anybody know what that means? I'm trying to get info on their unit. Is it the 1st Batallion?

Chris

the russian blogger comments that Salam hasn't posted since the "shock and awe" stuff started.....wonder if he is ok, or just doesn't have 'net access.....

http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/

Is it just me, or is his grammar like Boris's from Rocky & Bullwinkle?

Michael Moore just won Oscar for "Bowling for Columbine", gave an anti-war speach at the Oscars and got boo'ed. Interesting times.

Did you just see Michael Moore's speech?

God Bless Michael Moore.

From BBC:

Two British soldiers are missing in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence has said.

Their vehicles were attacked in the south of the country and efforts are being made to find them, a spokesman told BBC News Online.

The incident happened on Sunday, he added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2879631.stm

Ok so I got distracted for a minute and had the Oscar's on... Michael Moore just got booed off the stage for saying that the 2000 election was fiction and that our fictional president is leading the country into a war for fictional reasons. He was really booed loudly and harshly.

Then Steve Martin made a joke about him.

Pretty cheap shot by Martin, I felt. :/

But if anyone thought Moore wasn't gonna have an inflamatory acceptance speech, they were living in a dream world.

So what was the joke?

Given his nature, Moore might have laughed too.

On the lighter side, Larry King describes the carrier Constellation as "bound for Baghdad".

Maybe it's part of the Shock and Awe campaign

It will look mighty impressive coming up the Euphrates...

Posted by: Peter Shriner on March 23, 2003 10:07 PM

or out of the sky

Martin's joke was that the Teamsters were helping Moore into his limo right at that moment.

Martin said "You should see it....The teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo"

Moore was gonna make his opinion no matter what and it was expected. Thank god that the crowd mostly booed and that he was further put back in his place by Steve Martin who told the audience that Moore was escorted to his limo by the teamsters.

Also, I was just watching the live feed from Baghdad which is always open on my computer when I'm on and I heard a siren (5 minutes ago) which was long and did not waver. Is this the all clear sound as it is in Kuwait? Or does Iraq use a different system than does Kuwait?

I know it's an easy lable, but the Aussies, Brits & us do not a "coalition" make. It doesn't deserve to be dignified.

yea, although technically correct with several countries supporting for one reason or another, there are only 3 countries invading unless you wish to count the turks. i am not because i think they have thier own agenda. would prefer anglo-america but that disses the aussie if i am getting the term that the anglo part only counts as gb. maybe should be anglo-auso-america forces

uh, I think coalition is a little easier/shorter to say.

The Teamsters?

Martin certainly must not have meant the 21,000 members of the Chicago Teamsters, who passed a resolution condemning the war.

Air-raid sirens going off in Baghdad now. 10:39 EST

Re: Bowling for Columbine
Moore got a standing ovation when the award for Best Documentary was announced. Foreign press reports his statement as something like (I'm translating):

"We are living in a time in which there is a man who is sending us to war for ficticious reasons. Mr. Bush, we are against the war. Shame on you. You're acting against the will of the people."

Sustained applause in oppostion to the war in Iraq. Both plaudits and boos were heard.

Steve Martin then said, "that's his [Moore's] personal fantasy."

Good for Michael Moore! He's definitely the Rush Limbaugh of the left and when it comes to the truth I trust him about as much as I trust Geraldo Rivera, but its very good to see a rabblerouser who is both gutsy and genuinely concerned with things other than his own ego.

I crosschecked Veniks site with the iraqwar.ru site via a russian-to-english translator. Only a short peek, but his translation seems to be about right.

And the reports so far has been spot on, including the troubles in Basra, fight for An Nasirya and even the ambush of the american supply convoy. The casualty figures and assorted "conversations" is suspect though.

As I said earlier, the truth is probably somewhere in-between this info and the pentagon/mass media take on the war.

The Martin joke was pretty funny, hearing it secondhand from my wife.

The funny thing is, Moore pretty much got Bush elected with his support for Nader. Wonder who Moore will support in 2004?

First, I hope someone gets the wife of that solider the information she wants.

I guess it's the Michael Moore subthread. I am in general agreement with the message, but I definitely agree with the "Rush Limbaugh of the Left" characterization. As for the art of documentary filmmaking, Michael Moore no more makes documentaries than Steven Spielberg does. As for the message tonight, there's too much P.T. Barnum to be credible in my estimation, and it frankly made me cringe a little.

Of course, most of the boos probably came from the polite society in Hollywood who don't want any financial backlash from his comments.

In case we forget about Khalid Sheikh Mohamed:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/03/24/walq24.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/03/24/ixportal.html

I don't doubt there is truth to this, but it certainly was released for maximum impact ("closer than expected! more widespread than believed!), and the propaganda value of its timing is undeniable.

I'm patriotic, but not naive.

he wasnt booed off stage. he had equal amounts of booeing and cheering.

Mostly, the "booeing" seemed to be "NOOOO! NOOO!! NOOO!" not actual boos, as if a couple of people(only or two were yelling NOOO. There was minor booeing also) just didnt want him to do it at the awards.

Corbu: Certainly not, as the Oscars are in Los Angeles. Local 705 is in Chicago, several thousand miles away. I think Steven Martin was merely using the teamsters as a punchline- blue collar 'tough guys', who have been known to rough up people on movie sets in the past. A number of Teamsters would be on hand at the Oscars. It was a joke, and there's no need to read too much into it. (Besides, the Oscars have professional security to take care of that sort of thing).

Dune was much more interesting than the Oscars. Of course, I've missed about 12 hours worth of war coverage...sigh. I have to catch up then.

"9:51 CST The Agonist has 32 browser windows open and two TVs on. LOL. "

haha perhaps I was right when I blogged that you had many arms or something!

Hey hey! Where's our pizza update?

I don't know how to confirm this, but does anyone share my suspicion that the two cruise missiles that went astray of Turkey and landded in unpopulated areas were warning shots that were lined up on something not unpopulated and not harmless and not in Iraq?

It may be coincidence-- but I think that TWO missiles is a bit odd.

8 Mile got best song at Oscars.

Re the number of troops in the military coalition fighting the war in Iraq:
US 250,000
Brits 45,000
Ausies 2,000
Others 0

The following link as posted by Sean-Paul is a dead link.

"9:47 CST Problems in Kashmir."

The fixed link is Problems in Kashmir - Fixed.

Sorry, it was my fault, not Sean-Paul's.

Eric

Poland 200

I just went to an Edwards event, and he gave a quick speech, over the yells and drumbeats of the protesters outside

Well, that's *one* way to put it. My roommate and I were also at last night's Edwards fundraiser in Raleigh, but were outside with the 200-300 drummers and chanters. More details here.

About the Russian military site aeronautics..ru, if it is the same site run by a guy named Venik, do not trust any of it. He was running this site during the Kosovo War, and according to him and his sources, the entire US Air Force was shot down three or four times. The guy does not have a good handle on any accurate information. If you want to verify my claim, google "Venik" "Kosovo OR Yugoslavia OR Serbia" on the Usenet group rec.aviation.military and sci.military.naval.