Significantly, Dr. Kay does not conclude that Saddam was any less a threat to U.S. national security than originally estimated by President George Bush, noting, "I actually think this may be one of those cases where it was even more dangerous than we thought.
we do know Iraq had significant stockpiles of chemical WMD (like Saddam used on Kurdish men, women and children in 1988)
you know...we knew they WERE USING THEM in 1984 when Reagan sent Rumsfeld to Bagdad to resume diplomatic ties with them.
as for the 1988 gassing...because of it, the Senate passed sweeping sanctions that would have denied Iraq access to most US technology. The measure was killed by the White House.
It's a con game...set them up to take them down later...when it is politically expedient.
Ricin was found as well as programs to make them. Kay said Iraq was more dangerous than we thought because terrorists were entering and leaving Iraq at a will. I think you can lay alot of this at the doorstep of the CIA when they stopped paying for info on the ground because we sould be dealing with unsavory people. But the democrats won't be able make any political points because Kerry voted for the war. His only claim was that he had been duped. Do you think that will win him votes? Kerry's slogan is "vote for me I was fooled!"
For the sake of argument, suppose the CIA had collected, before the war, all the information about these trailers that's publicly available now. Suppose the CIA reached the same conclusion, then, that David Kay has reached now.
A CIA briefer would've had to tell the president something like this: Mr. President, we've discovered two unique trailers in Iraq. An Iraqi engineer tells us he made bioweapons on such a trailer. Three other sources provided corroborating information. The company that built the trailers says they're for making hydrogen for weather balloons, but they're inefficient for that purpose. The trailers are indeed capable of producing biological agents. But our consensus opinion, sir, is that "their actual intended use was not for production of biological weapons."
You'd think a president would ask: How did you arrive at that conclusion? And that's exactly what the president's commission should now ask David Kay.
WASHINGTON — A 7-pound block of cyanide salt was discovered by U.S. troops in Baghdad at the end of January, officials confirmed to Fox News.
The potentially lethal compound was located in what was believed to be the safe house of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a poisons specialist described by some U.S. intelligence officials as having been a key link between deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the Al Qaeda terror network.
In order to please Crabby, I will post one interesting paragraph and give a link to what gets even better than this.
On Sept. 24, 2001 — not two weeks after 9/11 — Kurdish sources led me to report: "The clear link between the terrorist in hiding [Osama] and the terrorist in power [Saddam] can be found in Kurdistan. . . . The Iraqi dictator has armed and financed a fifth column of Al Qaeda mullahs and terrorists. . . . Some 400 `Arab Afghan' mercenaries . . . have already murdered a high Kurdish official as well as a Muslim scholar who dared to interpret the Koran humanely."
... We went into this war under false premises," Melendez said.
Wexler told Powell he considered him to be "the credible voice in the administration."
"When you reached the conclusion that Iraq represented a clear and present danger to the United States, that meant a lot to me," Wexler said. "But the facts suggest there was a part of the story that was not true."
Powell fielded the assertions calmly, defending the president's judgment and his own.
But when Brown contrasted Powell's military experience to Bush's record with the National Guard, saying the president "may have been AWOL" from duty, Powell exploded.
"First of all, Mr. Brown, I won't dignify your comments about the president because you don't know what you are talking about," Powell snapped.
"I'm sorry I don't know what you mean, Mr. Secretary," Brown replied.
"You made reference to the president," Powell shot back.
Brown then repeated his understanding that Bush may have been AWOL from guard duty.
"Mr. Brown, let's not go there," Powell retorted. "Let's not go there in this hearing. If you want to have a political fight on this matter, that is very controversial, and I think it is being dealt with by the White House, fine, but let's not go there."
Powell then went on to defend the Bush administration's assertions on Iraq's prewar weaponry. "We didn't make it up," Powell said. "It was information that reflected the views of analysts in all the various agencies."
But the dispute with Brown did not end.
"Are you shaking your head for something, young man?," Powell asked when he noticed an aide to Brown apparently disagreeing.
"I seldom come to a meeting when I'm talking to a congressman and I have people aligned behind you giving editorial comment by headshakes," Powell said.
Brown, defending his assistant, said "I think people have opinions."
Eager to move on, the committee chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., observed that "we're on a very emotional subject," but "we've been doing swimmingly until now."
Once again you make accusations that you can't backup with facts.
Colin Powell took time out of his busy schedule to address concerns that some in the congress have about intelligence and he has to sit through unrelated attacks on the president as well as "editorial comment by headshakes". The best you can make out of that is a gut feeling that there is a "general lack of tranparency"? He's telling the world what happened and that is not transparent enough for you? You are truely an amazing piece of work.
For the first time, the General Accounting Office – an arm of Congress – is suing the executive branch, because it cannot get the basic facts about who participated in what meetings.
Attorney General John Ashcroft released a guidance memo to agencies on implementing the Freedom of Information Act. The memo instructed agencies, in essence, to withhold information whenever possible. This is a fundamental reversal of past policy, which stressed disclosure where possible.
A March 2002 memo by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card accompanied by a memo from the Department of Justice and the National Archives and Records Administration encourages agencies to think twice about disclosing information to the public. The Card/DOJ memo instructs agencies to review procedures for disclosure of "sensitive but unclassified" information, but fails to define the term.
At the beginning of November 2001, just before documents from the Reagan administration were to be released, Bush signed an Executive Order that effectively denies the public’s right of access to presidential documents by giving an incumbent or former president veto power over any public release of materials.
In December, 2001, in response to a congressional subpoena, President Bush asserted executive privilege to withhold giving information to the House Government Reform Committee regarding documents related to former Attorney General Janet Reno’s decision not to appoint a Special Counsel to pursue possible campaign finance misdeeds. In August 2002, Bush’s lawyers filed arguments in U.S. District Court to extend executive privilege to include information about presidential pardons.
A March 2002 Department of Defense proposal that has been withdrawn would have created the possibility for criminal sanctions to be brought against individuals publishing unclassified research. The proposal is still being debated. In March 2002, the State Department published interim final rules that may limit communications between U.S. higher education institutions and foreign institutions over public domain information.
Congress, at the urging of the Bush administration, is considering “Critical Infrastructure Information” (CII) legislation as part of the bill to create a new department of homeland security. Voluntarily submitted CII would be exempt from FOIA, and such information could not be used in civil action suits or anti-trust actions. In the House version, disclosure of such information by a civil servant would be a criminal penalty, all but gutting whistleblower protections. Finally, the legislation would preempt state openness laws to insure that anything withheld by the new department could not be disclosed by states. There would be little to no accountability over what gets classified as CII.
At the end of September 2002, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, announced that the number of freedom of information requests within the executive branch agencies have either held even or declined, but the backlog has increased. In its review of implementation of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996, GAO found that “agency backlogs of pending requests are substantial and growing government-wide,” and that some agencies are not properly making information available through their web sites or are making it difficult to find the information.
it's just a pattern of a "you don't need to know" attitude.
and of course there is the whole matter of appointing to key positions in the administration several people who had criminally withheld and covered up information from Congress about an illegal war they were waging from the basement of the White House.
airbusto...James Bath...Bush at first denied ever knowing Bath...Salem bin Laden...Bank of Commerce and Credit International ...Osama bin Laden...CIA financial support to the Afghan mujahedin...Harken Energy Corporation...Saudi Sheik Abdullah Taha Bakhsh...Pharaon...Khalid bin Mahfouz...Mahfouz’s sister is a wife of Osama bin Laden...
you should only post excerpts from articles, not the entire thing. "fair use" is the term here. reprinting an entire article isn't considered fair use. You want to reference an entire article, you should provide a link to it. crabgrass - (PFID:ef5370b) - 09:10am Feb 12, 2004 PST (# 672 of 676)
the point was...gee, Colin...the administration you work for has systematically blocked the release of information and done everything they can to dimantle and subvert the FOIA and appointed men who openly lied to and withheld things from Congress and now you accuse someone of not knowing what they are talking about? Well...yeah. Who's fault is that?
All the records known are available concerning Bush's military experience. You even posted some here. The congressman talking about the so called "AWOL" issue knew he was full of shit and that it had nothing to do with the subject at hand, but he had to throw it in anyway and then have his toadies shake their heads as Colin Powell tried to answer the legitimate questions. How pathetic.
As for the GAO lawsuit, the Comptroller General of GAO really has no constitutional right to demand to be, in effect, a note taking entity at every executive office meeting. The only way he could do this is if a committee requested the information. The only ones requesting this was 2 Democrats who wanted the information for their own political witch hunt.
It also is suspect when you consider that the person pushing that was none other than David M. Walker. He was a Clinton appointee who was a partner and global managing director of Arthur Andersen LLP and a member of the board of Arthur Andersen Financial Advisors. linkThis creates an obvious and very serious conflict of interest in his supposed concern over Enron.
The war on terror is taking some distressing turns.
The executive director of the ACLU was on C-Span this morning. Set aside any feelings you have about the organzation and just look at the facts he presented concerning the detainees at Guantanmo Bay.
There's 660 men being held there without charges. They were supposed to face military tribunals. None have, and only six are scheduled.
The famous case of Jose Padilla. An American citizen arrested on American soil has been held indefinately without charges.
The ACLU plans to take this before the SC and I hope they get a ruling. How long can this go on?
The U.S. is supposed to be a place where people have a chance to get justice. Will these people get justice under this administration and this attorney general?
If we are going to win the war on terror, the liberation of Iran is not an option. It is a prerequisite. The Bush administration should be saying so -- and living up to its words.
Today I have arrived in Kuwait. It has actually been one of the most interesting (and by interesting I really mean surreal) trips I have ever been on. The past 72 hours has been nothing like the last 4 months that I have been gone.
Up until this point, our schedule has been pretty straight forward, follow the training schedule, fix whats broke and hurry up and wait. And the training we recieved at the NTC in CA was excellent.
Leaving the US to go to a combat zone creates an interesting emotion that you just can't pin point, nor do you fully want to explore. So on the morning of the 11th, I was excited to be part the 81st BDE ADVON party. I finally get to do my job with out an observer or evaluator looking over my shoulder, coaching and analyzing each decision. It means from this point on, I have live with my choices.
So with that swimming around in the back of my head, we head off to Victorville, CA to get on the plane. In the army, loading up to fly anywhere is quite a process. My plane departed at 400pm in the afternoon, so that meant be ready go at 900am that morning. Hours of standing around waiting, but the BDE had a plan. In case something got delayed at the airport, they would have movies and cots set up for everyone to relax while they waited. And of course, our plane was late (by 12 hours) and plan to keep everyone occupied worked out.
Except our flight, the first flight, was the group that was suppossed to arrive before everyone else and get the ball rolling. So I as we watched "the Passion" and "Saving Private Ryan" the rest of my unit took off for Kuwait. And they would now become the ADVON party for us.
Our plane departed exactly 12 hour later as expected, and it 400am and everyone is a bit punchy. Omni International Airlines. Never heard of them and they don't have their own inflight magazine. But thats ok 'cause I got 2 business class seats to sprawl out on. From the time the plan departs its a total of 20hours in the air and 4 hours of layovers for fuel. Our 1st stop was in Bangor Maine and I slept less than an hour on the flight. The local VFW was out to great us at the airport, to shake hands and give hugs. Great Stuff. Totally unexpected. So much for OPSEC...
Then we were off to Frankfort Germany. It only took 2 1/2 movies and a half hour nap to get there. And by then the time zones really dont match up with your interal clock. I think the local time was 200am but it was more like 800am or 800pm for me. And I had to be at work the next day. We switched flight crews in Germany and picked up a crew from Minneapolis. Cool. One of the flight attentents was from Burnsville, she only lives about 6 blocks from our house. Its really a small world....yada yada yada. Anyway, I gave her Megan's phone number and she wants to give her a call once she gets back. Let Megan know that I got to Kuwait and everything is alright. This crew from minneapolis has been making this run between the US and Kuwait since a year before the War started. Old hat to them, just makes you feel a little more safe.
The weather at the airport was nice, about 78degrees and overcast. We started out at Camp Wolverine, got the in country brief and saftey brief done, and got issued by 30 rounds of 5.56 ammo. Then off to the DFAC (chow hall). Wow, this place really puts out a spread. Main line, short order, fruit, salad, sandwich bar, N/A beer, and ice cream. All while you watch CNN on one of 20 TVs. Very odd. Once everyone was done, most guys go out to smoke in one of the sandbagged fighting positions. CNN, ammo, ice cream and sandbags. Camp Wolverine is an interesting place.
Then comes the fun part. We are in Camp Wolverine for only a couple of hours before the load us on to buses to move up to Camp New York to meet up with the rest of the unit. The bus drivers are locals and speak no english. We had 6 or 7 mercedes or BMW buses lined up to move everyone. On this three hour road trip I came to find that graded sand path across the desert constitutes a road in kuwait. And the drivers are nuts. I finally fell asleep during the first hour of the bus ride but woke up to most everyone on the bus laughing and cheering on our driver. After glancing through the window (all the bus have shades that must be closed while soldiers are on the bus) I see the we are really not on a road and that four of the buses are driving abreast across the desert. Then they start jocking for their place in the line up. These guys get 12 to 18 inches behind the bus in front of them and see how long they can keep up. Or a space will open between 2 buses and a third will cut in between and pass to the other side of the "road". And there is really no need for any of this but it continues on for 2 more hours until we arrive at camp NY. Then they get out of the buses, yelling and pointing at each other. Fun stuff. We managed to find the rest of the unit once we got on site. This place is big, I mean it is miles across will a 20 foot berm around the whole thing. None of our equipment is here except the stuff we brought, so tomorrow looks like another day of adjusting training shedules and hurry up and wait.
Thanks Kitch. We said goodbye to my nephew last weekend. He is off to a base in the U.S. for a short time and then to do the same as your buddy. My nephew is a mechanic, so he should be safe there. Can't wait to hear from him and talk to him when he gets back. Should be interesting.
I will be glad to...I never posted the prior ones because they was kinda boring...talking about his training in the state of washington....
I often worry about him because he is the only person that I personally know that is currently over there...and he is married with a 5 yr old son....my prayers are with him. But I'm happy its him because I know many other "younger" men/women are safe with him.
March 24, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - U.N. bureaucrats are stonewalling requests from Iraq's new government for records from the scandal-plagued oil-for-food account set up in Saddam Hussein's handpicked French bank, officials said yesterday.
The mysterious activities over the handling of the U.N. account at the French banking giant BNP Paribas, where $100 billion worth of oil-for-food transactions flowed until the war, has emerged as a central focus of several investigations in the wake of the massive bribery-kickback scandal that has rocked the world body at its highest levels.
United Nations custody of the account was so secretive and unusual that even Saddam, who stole $10.1 billion from the program and bribed sympathetic pols with some of the proceeds, pressed unsuccessfully to have the account transferred out of the bank he originally insisted handle the program, said Claude Hankes-Drielsma, the British businessman advising Iraq's Governing Council on the issue.
"The key question in this investigation is, what was the relationship between the U.N. and this French bank?" Hankes-Drielsma added.
Hankes-Drielsma said serious questions arose shortly after the war ended, when files were found in Iraq's Oil Ministry indicating that four earlier audits of the account unearthed "discrepancies" in some of the oil transactions.
Saddam's Central Bank of Iraq was asking questions that the United Nations refused to answer, he said...
WASHINGTON -- Before the great hunt for scapegoats begins, let's look at what David Kay has actually said about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/charleskrauthammer/ck20040130.shtml
Significantly, Dr. Kay does not conclude that Saddam was any less a threat to U.S. national security than originally estimated by President George Bush, noting, "I actually think this may be one of those cases where it was even more dangerous than we thought.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/markalexander/ma20040130.shtml
you know...we knew they WERE USING THEM in 1984 when Reagan sent Rumsfeld to Bagdad to resume diplomatic ties with them.
as for the 1988 gassing...because of it, the Senate passed sweeping sanctions that would have denied Iraq access to most US technology. The measure was killed by the White House.
It's a con game...set them up to take them down later...when it is politically expedient.
NONE, have been found.
NONE.
Ricin was found as well as programs to make them. Kay said Iraq was more dangerous than we thought because terrorists were entering and leaving Iraq at a will. I think you can lay alot of this at the doorstep of the CIA when they stopped paying for info on the ground because we sould be dealing with unsavory people. But the democrats won't be able make any political points because Kerry voted for the war. His only claim was that he had been duped. Do you think that will win him votes? Kerry's slogan is "vote for me I was fooled!"
Our intelligence services have been disgraceful since they were torn to shreds by the Carter administration.
For the sake of argument, suppose the CIA had collected, before the war, all the information about these trailers that's publicly available now. Suppose the CIA reached the same conclusion, then, that David Kay has reached now.
A CIA briefer would've had to tell the president something like this: Mr. President, we've discovered two unique trailers in Iraq. An Iraqi engineer tells us he made bioweapons on such a trailer. Three other sources provided corroborating information. The company that built the trailers says they're for making hydrogen for weather balloons, but they're inefficient for that purpose. The trailers are indeed capable of producing biological agents. But our consensus opinion, sir, is that "their actual intended use was not for production of biological weapons."
You'd think a president would ask: How did you arrive at that conclusion? And that's exactly what the president's commission should now ask David Kay.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/terencejeffrey/tj20040204.shtml
WASHINGTON — A 7-pound block of cyanide salt was discovered by U.S. troops in Baghdad at the end of January, officials confirmed to Fox News.
The potentially lethal compound was located in what was believed to be the safe house of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a poisons specialist described by some U.S. intelligence officials as having been a key link between deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the Al Qaeda terror network.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110372,00.html
Carter, and his bleeding heart, did tear apart the CIA.
Carter, thought international intelligence should have feel good foo foo bunny rules.
What he didn't realize is that the dirty folks the CIA is dealing with, they don't respond to foo foo bunny tactics.
And Clinton followed Carter's lead.
NEVER!
.
.
In order to please Crabby, I will post one interesting paragraph and give a link to what gets even better than this.
link
I've never claimed that there wasn't a clear link between Saddam and bin Laden...they have both been employed and financed by Bush
link
... We went into this war under false premises," Melendez said.
Wexler told Powell he considered him to be "the credible voice in the administration."
"When you reached the conclusion that Iraq represented a clear and present danger to the United States, that meant a lot to me," Wexler said. "But the facts suggest there was a part of the story that was not true."
Powell fielded the assertions calmly, defending the president's judgment and his own.
But when Brown contrasted Powell's military experience to Bush's record with the National Guard, saying the president "may have been AWOL" from duty, Powell exploded.
"First of all, Mr. Brown, I won't dignify your comments about the president because you don't know what you are talking about," Powell snapped.
"I'm sorry I don't know what you mean, Mr. Secretary," Brown replied.
"You made reference to the president," Powell shot back.
Brown then repeated his understanding that Bush may have been AWOL from guard duty.
"Mr. Brown, let's not go there," Powell retorted. "Let's not go there in this hearing. If you want to have a political fight on this matter, that is very controversial, and I think it is being dealt with by the White House, fine, but let's not go there."
Powell then went on to defend the Bush administration's assertions on Iraq's prewar weaponry. "We didn't make it up," Powell said. "It was information that reflected the views of analysts in all the various agencies."
But the dispute with Brown did not end.
"Are you shaking your head for something, young man?," Powell asked when he noticed an aide to Brown apparently disagreeing.
"I seldom come to a meeting when I'm talking to a congressman and I have people aligned behind you giving editorial comment by headshakes," Powell said.
Brown, defending his assistant, said "I think people have opinions."
Eager to move on, the committee chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., observed that "we're on a very emotional subject," but "we've been doing swimmingly until now."
that pretty much sums up the entire administration's attitude toward the American public.
You base that on what?
their attitude
More specific please.
it's not a specific observation...but the general lack of tranparency for starters.
Once again you make accusations that you can't backup with facts.
Colin Powell took time out of his busy schedule to address concerns that some in the congress have about intelligence and he has to sit through unrelated attacks on the president as well as "editorial comment by headshakes". The best you can make out of that is a gut feeling that there is a "general lack of tranparency"? He's telling the world what happened and that is not transparent enough for you? You are truely an amazing piece of work.
it's just a pattern of a "you don't need to know" attitude.
I was only referring to how his one statement pretty much summed up an attitude I see in the current administration.
and of course there is the whole matter of appointing to key positions in the administration several people who had criminally withheld and covered up information from Congress about an illegal war they were waging from the basement of the White House.
it's insulting.
specific enough?
I've never claimed that there wasn't a clear link between Saddam and bin Laden...they have both been employed and financed by Bush
Bullshit.
We (the US) did side with Iraq against Iran, but there's no connection between Bush & Osama.
airbusto...James Bath...Bush at first denied ever knowing Bath...Salem bin Laden...Bank of Commerce and Credit International ...Osama bin Laden...CIA financial support to the Afghan mujahedin...Harken Energy Corporation...Saudi Sheik Abdullah Taha Bakhsh...Pharaon...Khalid bin Mahfouz...Mahfouz’s sister is a wife of Osama bin Laden...
nope...no connection there
rolls eyes
you should only post excerpts from articles, not the entire thing. "fair use" is the term here. reprinting an entire article isn't considered fair use. You want to reference an entire article, you should provide a link to it. crabgrass - (PFID:ef5370b) - 09:10am Feb 12, 2004 PST (# 672 of 676)
that's what I said
you DID ask for specifics, didn't you?
the point was...gee, Colin...the administration you work for has systematically blocked the release of information and done everything they can to dimantle and subvert the FOIA and appointed men who openly lied to and withheld things from Congress and now you accuse someone of not knowing what they are talking about? Well...yeah. Who's fault is that?
that's what I said
I see, do as you say, not as you do.
Well...yeah. Who's fault is that?
All the records known are available concerning Bush's military experience. You even posted some here. The congressman talking about the so called "AWOL" issue knew he was full of shit and that it had nothing to do with the subject at hand, but he had to throw it in anyway and then have his toadies shake their heads as Colin Powell tried to answer the legitimate questions. How pathetic.
As for the GAO lawsuit, the Comptroller General of GAO really has no constitutional right to demand to be, in effect, a note taking entity at every executive office meeting. The only way he could do this is if a committee requested the information. The only ones requesting this was 2 Democrats who wanted the information for their own political witch hunt.
It also is suspect when you consider that the person pushing that was none other than David M. Walker. He was a Clinton appointee who was a partner and global managing director of Arthur Andersen LLP and a member of the board of Arthur Andersen Financial Advisors. linkThis creates an obvious and very serious conflict of interest in his supposed concern over Enron.
crabgrass 2/12/04 7:13pm
Boy that's a stretch.
It's a slippery slope, that takes a trickle of a connection and turns it into a raging river.
when liberals can't deal with the truth they start making accusations about conspiracies. Remember the "vast right wing conspiracy?"
colin powell: I won't dignify your comments about the president because you don't know what you are talking about
crabs: that pretty much sums up the entire administration's attitude toward the American public.
That sums up what everyone should think about liberals.
Just a heads up Trojan horse
The war on terror is taking some distressing turns.
The executive director of the ACLU was on C-Span this morning. Set aside any feelings you have about the organzation and just look at the facts he presented concerning the detainees at Guantanmo Bay.
There's 660 men being held there without charges. They were supposed to face military tribunals. None have, and only six are scheduled.
The famous case of Jose Padilla. An American citizen arrested on American soil has been held indefinately without charges.
The ACLU plans to take this before the SC and I hope they get a ruling. How long can this go on?
The U.S. is supposed to be a place where people have a chance to get justice. Will these people get justice under this administration and this attorney general?
Smoke detector on.
How about Padilla? What does he deserve?
Isn't the Padilla case the one the ACLU has taken up? I would say that the matter is being addressed.
Looks like everyone else shares your nonchalance about it, jethro.
This country has many more things to worry about than 660 pow's.
They're forunate you're not running the Gitmo Camp, right Torpedo?
I don't know. What does "forunate" mean?
If we are going to win the war on terror, the liberation of Iran is not an option. It is a prerequisite. The Bush administration should be saying so -- and living up to its words.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jeffjacoby/jj20040312.shtml
13 Mar 04
Greetings to everyone.
Today I have arrived in Kuwait. It has actually been one of the most interesting (and by interesting I really mean surreal) trips I have ever been on. The past 72 hours has been nothing like the last 4 months that I have been gone.
Up until this point, our schedule has been pretty straight forward, follow the training schedule, fix whats broke and hurry up and wait. And the training we recieved at the NTC in CA was excellent.
Leaving the US to go to a combat zone creates an interesting emotion that you just can't pin point, nor do you fully want to explore. So on the morning of the 11th, I was excited to be part the 81st BDE ADVON party. I finally get to do my job with out an observer or evaluator looking over my shoulder, coaching and analyzing each decision. It means from this point on, I have live with my choices.
So with that swimming around in the back of my head, we head off to Victorville, CA to get on the plane. In the army, loading up to fly anywhere is quite a process. My plane departed at 400pm in the afternoon, so that meant be ready go at 900am that morning. Hours of standing around waiting, but the BDE had a plan. In case something got delayed at the airport, they would have movies and cots set up for everyone to relax while they waited. And of course, our plane was late (by 12 hours) and plan to keep everyone occupied worked out.
Except our flight, the first flight, was the group that was suppossed to arrive before everyone else and get the ball rolling. So I as we watched "the Passion" and "Saving Private Ryan" the rest of my unit took off for Kuwait. And they would now become the ADVON party for us.
Our plane departed exactly 12 hour later as expected, and it 400am and everyone is a bit punchy. Omni International Airlines. Never heard of them and they don't have their own inflight magazine. But thats ok 'cause I got 2 business class seats to sprawl out on. From the time the plan departs its a total of 20hours in the air and 4 hours of layovers for fuel. Our 1st stop was in Bangor Maine and I slept less than an hour on the flight. The local VFW was out to great us at the airport, to shake hands and give hugs. Great Stuff. Totally unexpected. So much for OPSEC...
Then we were off to Frankfort Germany. It only took 2 1/2 movies and a half hour nap to get there. And by then the time zones really dont match up with your interal clock. I think the local time was 200am but it was more like 800am or 800pm for me. And I had to be at work the next day. We switched flight crews in Germany and picked up a crew from Minneapolis. Cool. One of the flight attentents was from Burnsville, she only lives about 6 blocks from our house. Its really a small world....yada yada yada. Anyway, I gave her Megan's phone number and she wants to give her a call once she gets back. Let Megan know that I got to Kuwait and everything is alright. This crew from minneapolis has been making this run between the US and Kuwait since a year before the War started. Old hat to them, just makes you feel a little more safe.
The weather at the airport was nice, about 78degrees and overcast. We started out at Camp Wolverine, got the in country brief and saftey brief done, and got issued by 30 rounds of 5.56 ammo. Then off to the DFAC (chow hall). Wow, this place really puts out a spread. Main line, short order, fruit, salad, sandwich bar, N/A beer, and ice cream. All while you watch CNN on one of 20 TVs. Very odd. Once everyone was done, most guys go out to smoke in one of the sandbagged fighting positions. CNN, ammo, ice cream and sandbags. Camp Wolverine is an interesting place.
Then comes the fun part. We are in Camp Wolverine for only a couple of hours before the load us on to buses to move up to Camp New York to meet up with the rest of the unit. The bus drivers are locals and speak no english. We had 6 or 7 mercedes or BMW buses lined up to move everyone. On this three hour road trip I came to find that graded sand path across the desert constitutes a road in kuwait. And the drivers are nuts. I finally fell asleep during the first hour of the bus ride but woke up to most everyone on the bus laughing and cheering on our driver. After glancing through the window (all the bus have shades that must be closed while soldiers are on the bus) I see the we are really not on a road and that four of the buses are driving abreast across the desert. Then they start jocking for their place in the line up. These guys get 12 to 18 inches behind the bus in front of them and see how long they can keep up. Or a space will open between 2 buses and a third will cut in between and pass to the other side of the "road". And there is really no need for any of this but it continues on for 2 more hours until we arrive at camp NY. Then they get out of the buses, yelling and pointing at each other. Fun stuff.
We managed to find the rest of the unit once we got on site. This place is big, I mean it is miles across will a 20 foot berm around the whole thing. None of our equipment is here except the stuff we brought, so tomorrow looks like another day of adjusting training shedules and hurry up and wait.
Miss you all,
Shaun.
ahhh, A day in the army.
Thanks Kitch. We said goodbye to my nephew last weekend. He is off to a base in the U.S. for a short time and then to do the same as your buddy. My nephew is a mechanic, so he should be safe there. Can't wait to hear from him and talk to him when he gets back. Should be interesting.
When you get more messages, share them with us.
I will be glad to...I never posted the prior ones because they was kinda boring...talking about his training in the state of washington....
I often worry about him because he is the only person that I personally know that is currently over there...and he is married with a 5 yr old son....my prayers are with him. But I'm happy its him because I know many other "younger" men/women are safe with him.
Dan, Not to worry you or anything, but wasn't Jessica Lynch in a unit of mechanics?
That happened only 5 days into the fighting. Sure it isn't the same as being here, but I believe that he will be as safe as possible there.
Why are we still involved with this crooked group?
U.N. STALLING IRAQ GOV'T PROBE OF $ECRET OIL ACCT.
By NILES LATHEM
March 24, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - U.N. bureaucrats are stonewalling requests from Iraq's new government for records from the scandal-plagued oil-for-food account set up in Saddam Hussein's handpicked French bank, officials said yesterday.
The mysterious activities over the handling of the U.N. account at the French banking giant BNP Paribas, where $100 billion worth of oil-for-food transactions flowed until the war, has emerged as a central focus of several investigations in the wake of the massive bribery-kickback scandal that has rocked the world body at its highest levels.
United Nations custody of the account was so secretive and unusual that even Saddam, who stole $10.1 billion from the program and bribed sympathetic pols with some of the proceeds, pressed unsuccessfully to have the account transferred out of the bank he originally insisted handle the program, said Claude Hankes-Drielsma, the British businessman advising Iraq's Governing Council on the issue.
"The key question in this investigation is, what was the relationship between the U.N. and this French bank?" Hankes-Drielsma added.
Hankes-Drielsma said serious questions arose shortly after the war ended, when files were found in Iraq's Oil Ministry indicating that four earlier audits of the account unearthed "discrepancies" in some of the oil transactions.
Saddam's Central Bank of Iraq was asking questions that the United Nations refused to answer, he said...