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Top UN official among dead in Baghdad blast

dh | 19.08.2003 17:51

Already being blamed on al Qaeda and 'foreign nationals', an explosion to take blame way from coalition's agenda for the mess in Iraq, and place it back on the war on terror.
This obviousness of this would be laughable if not so tragic

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1021791,00.html

Top UN official among dead in Baghdad blast

* At least 15 people killed
* Possible suicide bombing
* 'Scores' of other casualties

Agencies
Tuesday August 19, 2003


Aftermath of the explosion at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Photograph: AP


A powerful truck bomb ripped apart the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad today, killing at least 15 people including the UN's top official in Iraq.
A senior UN official confirmed that Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN secretary general's special representative to Iraq, had died after being trapped beneath the rubble of the UN building. Mr de Mello's office appeared to have been the target of the bombing.

Hundreds of UN staff work at the compound, a former hotel in eastern Baghdad. A UN worker in Baghdad told the Associated Press that he had counted 15 white body bags taken from the collapsed building. At least 40 people were injured.

"The explosion was caused by a massive truck bomb. We have evidence to suggest it could have been a suicide attack," Bernard Kerik, the top US law enforcement official in Baghdad, told reporters.

Uday Ahad, an Iraqi security guard at the building said: "I was standing at the gate when it exploded. Many Iraqis and foreigners were wounded." He told Reuters he had pulled three bodies from the rubble.

"Suddenly there was an explosion and everything fell down. There are lots of people inside because no one had gone home yet," said Fouad Victor, a UN employee.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene said he could see about 40 injured people receiving first aid in the front garden. At the nearby al-Kindi Hospital, Dr Munas Amer said at least two people, both Iraqis, were killed in the blast and at least 25 other people had been brought for treatment.

The explosion, which took place at 4.30pm local time (1330 BST) came just days after a truck bomb blew up outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, killing 17 people.

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said he was shocked by the bombing and hoped those responsible for the attack would quickly be brought to justice.

"All of us at the United Nations are shocked and dismayed by today's attack, in which dozens of our colleagues have been injured and an unknown number have lost their lives," Mr Annan said in a statement.

The US president, George Bush, immediately vowed to offer full assistance to the UN and said the "civilised world will not be intimidated".

"The terrororists who struck today have again showed their contempt for the innocent," Mr Bush said. "The terrorists want to return to the days of torture chambers and mass graves. The Iraqi people must reject them and fight terror."

Iraq, he said, is on "an irreversible course to self-government and peace". He said both the US and the UN would continue to stand with the Iraqi people.

US Black Hawk helicopters could be seen flying toward the scene immediately after the explosion, as a column of black smoke filled the sky.

Residents up to one mile away from the blast said that their windows had been blown out by the force of the blast. "My house shook like it did during the bombing at the start of the war," a resident in the area around the hotel said.

Several of the dead and wounded were still trapped under the rubble hours after the explosion, US army captain James Jensen told Reuters.

UN weapons inspectors worked from the hotel during the period before the war as the international community sought, but failed to find, Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

"Such a despicable act directed at people whose only aim is to assist the people of Iraq recover from war and years of oppression is to be condemned by the whole international community," the acting UN high commissioner for human rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, said in a statement.

"Such terrorist incidents cannot break the will of the international community to further intensify its efforts to help the people of Iraq," the president of the UN security council, Fayssal Mekdad, told a press conference in New York. He said such attacks would not stop the international body from operating in Iraq and that the council was united against the perpetrators of such assaults and resolved to track them down.

Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, condemned the bombing as an "outrage" and insisted that British and US efforts to rebuild the country would not be deterred.

"I am appalled by this callous attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. My thoughts are with the relatives and friends of those who have been killed and injured. I condemn this outrage against the United Nations, its staff and the people of Iraq.

"The victims, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, are people who are dedicating themselves to helping Iraq and the Iraqi people towards a better future."



Top UN official among dead in Baghdad blast

* At least 15 people killed
* Possible suicide bombing
* 'Scores' of other casualties

Agencies
Tuesday August 19, 2003


Aftermath of the explosion at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Photograph: AP


A powerful truck bomb ripped apart the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad today, killing at least 15 people including the UN's top official in Iraq.
A senior UN official confirmed that Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN secretary general's special representative to Iraq, had died after being trapped beneath the rubble of the UN building. Mr de Mello's office appeared to have been the target of the bombing.

Hundreds of UN staff work at the compound, a former hotel in eastern Baghdad. A UN worker in Baghdad told the Associated Press that he had counted 15 white body bags taken from the collapsed building. At least 40 people were injured.

"The explosion was caused by a massive truck bomb. We have evidence to suggest it could have been a suicide attack," Bernard Kerik, the top US law enforcement official in Baghdad, told reporters.

Uday Ahad, an Iraqi security guard at the building said: "I was standing at the gate when it exploded. Many Iraqis and foreigners were wounded." He told Reuters he had pulled three bodies from the rubble.

"Suddenly there was an explosion and everything fell down. There are lots of people inside because no one had gone home yet," said Fouad Victor, a UN employee.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene said he could see about 40 injured people receiving first aid in the front garden. At the nearby al-Kindi Hospital, Dr Munas Amer said at least two people, both Iraqis, were killed in the blast and at least 25 other people had been brought for treatment.

The explosion, which took place at 4.30pm local time (1330 BST) came just days after a truck bomb blew up outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, killing 17 people.

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said he was shocked by the bombing and hoped those responsible for the attack would quickly be brought to justice.

"All of us at the United Nations are shocked and dismayed by today's attack, in which dozens of our colleagues have been injured and an unknown number have lost their lives," Mr Annan said in a statement.

The US president, George Bush, immediately vowed to offer full assistance to the UN and said the "civilised world will not be intimidated".

"The terrororists who struck today have again showed their contempt for the innocent," Mr Bush said. "The terrorists want to return to the days of torture chambers and mass graves. The Iraqi people must reject them and fight terror."

Iraq, he said, is on "an irreversible course to self-government and peace". He said both the US and the UN would continue to stand with the Iraqi people.

US Black Hawk helicopters could be seen flying toward the scene immediately after the explosion, as a column of black smoke filled the sky.

Residents up to one mile away from the blast said that their windows had been blown out by the force of the blast. "My house shook like it did during the bombing at the start of the war," a resident in the area around the hotel said.

Several of the dead and wounded were still trapped under the rubble hours after the explosion, US army captain James Jensen told Reuters.

UN weapons inspectors worked from the hotel during the period before the war as the international community sought, but failed to find, Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

"Such a despicable act directed at people whose only aim is to assist the people of Iraq recover from war and years of oppression is to be condemned by the whole international community," the acting UN high commissioner for human rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, said in a statement.

"Such terrorist incidents cannot break the will of the international community to further intensify its efforts to help the people of Iraq," the president of the UN security council, Fayssal Mekdad, told a press conference in New York. He said such attacks would not stop the international body from operating in Iraq and that the council was united against the perpetrators of such assaults and resolved to track them down.

Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, condemned the bombing as an "outrage" and insisted that British and US efforts to rebuild the country would not be deterred.

"I am appalled by this callous attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. My thoughts are with the relatives and friends of those who have been killed and injured. I condemn this outrage against the United Nations, its staff and the people of Iraq.

"The victims, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, are people who are dedicating themselves to helping Iraq and the Iraqi people towards a better future."

dh

Comments

Hide the following 20 comments

A dream come true for Bush!

19.08.2003 18:03

I do not get it. The only one benefetting from this blast is Bush and Blair team. The so called terrorist in iraq are not against the UN, everybody knows that. This is very fishy..

Malin


this was against de mello not the UN

19.08.2003 19:06

i don't think the un specifically was the target as much as de mello.
if you see pictures of him in iraq it will be of him smiling with bremer....
i am truly horrified by the scenes of today. i saw a half-hour interview with de mello on bbc a month or two back. he dead now.

the future of iraq right now looks very very very bad. and did you see what happened in afghanistan today? what a fucking mess.

paul


not wanting to say i told ya so...

19.08.2003 19:53

hmmm i kind of remember 1 or 2 err... million of us teliing em that this kind of shit was gonna happen

the masses


"I would not like to see foreign tanks in Copacabana" Vieira de Mello

19.08.2003 19:55

In his last interview published before his death, Vieira de Mello sympathized with Iraqi resentment at having foreign troops on their soil. . . . ``It is traumatic. It must be one of the most humiliating periods in their history. Who would like to see their country occupied? . . . Throughout his tenure in Baghdad, he . . . insisted that the world body - not the U.S.-led coalition - should control the spending of Iraqi oil revenues.

``It is traumatic. It must be one of the most humiliating periods in their history. Who would like to see their country occupied? I would not like to see foreign tanks in Copacabana,'' he told the Brazilian newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo in an interview published Monday.

 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4486.htm

Now who would be upset with statments like that?

Malin


What has the UN ever done for Iraq?

20.08.2003 09:16

Sanctioned the first Gulf War
Instituted and oversaw the genocidal sanctions regime

That's 1-2 million dead Iraqis with the UN stamp of approval.

...and you reckon there's no motive???

UNfishy


pig doing

20.08.2003 12:04

hear hear unfihy.

UN are a bunch of pricks if not pigs for the pigs ...definitely over the Iraqi tragedy for the past 14 years.
There is heavy resentment of UN in Iraq.

Nevertheless the hatred for the pigs is so focussed and every resistance militant in Iraq is intelligent enough not to attck the UN like this.

Nayway as for the comment about the 1 or 2 million who marched here ....WTF are they doing now. Self masturbating? (The phoney marchers ie, probably you, were part of the the strategy not to portray the genocidal aggression of the pigs as a continumm of a 500 year history ...again this portrayal can only be sold to the pig!!!)

ram


the UN and Iraq

20.08.2003 13:31

ummm ... now let's see ... why did the UN impose sanctions in the first place? could it be that Iraq invaded - rather brutally - and tried to assimilate one of its neighbouring countries?

sceptic


Some of you mates here, ram...

20.08.2003 15:58

Here piggy...
Here piggy...

Piggy pig pig pig pig....
Piggy pig pig pig pig....

Pig pig pig piggy pig pig...
Pig pig pig piggy pig pig...

Onik, onik, oink!
Onik, onik, oink!

A few of ram's associates....

Thomas J


The UN and Iraq Part 2

20.08.2003 18:09

ummm ... now let's see. Was it US/IK and others that helped install and maintain and arm Sadams regime. Then when this regime invaded another state – the lovely democracy of Kuwait. They murdered 200,000 Iraqi conscripts and civilians. Then the UN joined in a 12 year blockaded that resulted in ½ million Iraq children being murdered.

Evan more sceptic
mail e-mail: haidarspider@talk21.com


Pig Pyramidoid Foundation (PPF)

20.08.2003 20:00


Pull the pig at the bottom and the whole structure will crumble!

ram


saddam

20.08.2003 20:13

installed him? no. came to power via the Ba'ath regime without any help from US/UK. armed him? very little. Russian tanks, remember? russian aircraft? how many us/uk tanks/planes etc is his armoury?

kuwait was certainly no democracy - but on that basis how many UN interventions would there have been in the last 50 year?

sceptic


err ...

20.08.2003 20:16

... not wanting to become to embroiled in porcine ramblings, but if you 'pull the pig at the bottom' ... they just find another to replace it.

In the real world heirachical structures need to be attacked at the top. This is best accomplished by not surrendering our power ... through language love and life ... to the scum at the top.

Stop now with the pig analogy already .. it has lost its effectiveness.

jackslucid
mail e-mail: jackslucid@hotmail.com


fucking idiot sceptic

20.08.2003 20:26

The pig does not know that the coup that installed the Baath party was engineered by the CIA and the british.

THe pig does not know that Saddam was the contact within the CIA and was handled from the time Saddam fled to Cairo to plan the overthrow of free Iraq.

!!! what an idiot !!!

ram


armoury?

20.08.2003 20:43

Talking of armoury ....

Where did the anthrax, West
Nile virus, botulinum toxins used in 80s against Iran come from?
Not directly from the US arms suppliers with direct approval of the
U.S. Commerce Department???

Where did the missile systems, sarin gas and trainign come from?
The (unconventional) arms for Iraq inquiry still shrouded in secrecy did not happen in the UK???
One pig Kelly did not train the last two Iraqi batches of bioweapons scientists at Porton Down before the invason of Kuwait???

Talking of arms .....do you realise that there was another arms for Iran scandal for which Bush Sr. was covered by one Col. Oliver North even going to prison btu I bet you will never point out one visible US armament in the Iranian arsenal.

Pig pig pig ....your mamma is a sow!!!

ram


Received...

20.08.2003 22:33

From: Hsing Lee
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 9:16 PM
Subject: The UN HQ Bombing

The UN HQ Bombing
I had something else in the pipeline but I’m putting it by the wayside to address the UN Bombing in Iraq before the American spin machine convinces the world that Iraqi Saddam sympathizers are to blame for the attack on the UN Headquarters in Iraq.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, head of the UN mission in Iraq, was killed.

The American media is blaming this attack on Islamic groups. Bremer hinted that it may have been Saddam loyalists.

Bullshit.

Mr. de Mello, aside from being the head of the Iraq mission, was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, elected by a Human Rights body which had no American representative. In otherwords, the US had no control over Mr. de Mello.

He was a key figure in getting elections in East Timor. In otherwords, he made enemies of US Oil interests while doing his work in Indonesia.

He made a speech in Osaka recently which talked about the need for rule of law, and of the need for NO ONE to be immune from the rule of law. He made a point of stressing the need for the International Criminal Court. He made a point of encouraging countries to sign on and ratify the Rome Statute.

www.hurights.or.jp/asia-pacific/no_31/03.htm

“First, I firmly believe that it is possible to take appropriate action in response to terrorist acts, or to prevent them, while still respecting human rights. No cause can ever justify a terrorist act. Indeed, terrorism seeks to destroy human rights and States have the duty to protect those within their territory from such acts. However, as the Secretary-General said at last year's session of the Commission on Human Rights "… we cannot achieve security by sacrificing human rights. To try to do so would land the terrorists a victory beyond their dreams."

In fact, human rights standards already strike a fair balance between freedoms and national security. After all, the standards were drafted by States themselves, who had a keen awareness of their own security concerns…”

“…Sixth, international criminal justice is an essential part of a rule of law and human rights approach to international security. Two weeks ago the General Assembly elected the 18 judges of the new International Criminal Court. This is a landmark in the creation of an interlocking system that will bring to justice those responsible for crimes considered so heinous by the international community, such as crimes against humanity and war crimes, that they should be subject to international jurisdiction. I urge States to sign and ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and thereby join this crucial mechanism aimed at preserving security and guaranteeing justice in the international system…”

Bush has made a point of insisting that no American will ever be tried for war crimes. Bush has insisted that America will not recognize the ICC, or ratify the Rome Statute.

If Mr. de Mello had returned to the UN as planned three months from now and taken back his post as UN Human Rights commissioner, he would be doing so as one who had observed American violations of the Geneva Convention in Iraq. He would have been in a position to speak of what was really going on in Iraq. He would have been in a position to speak about Iraqi prisoners receiving one and a half cups of water a day in 40-degree heat. That speech, if he had planned to make it, will never be heard.

With Mr. de Mello’s death, the US has avoided a fourth high profile UN voice coming forward to join Denis Halliday, Hans von Sponeck, and Hans Blix in calling America’s actions in Iraq illegal, immoral, and inhumane.

Mr. de Mello supported women’s rights. Last year, Bush killed a UN Resolution which would have ensured that women the world over had rights.

Mr. de Mello supported free and fair elections the world over. Mr. Bush promised free and fair elections in Iraq, then reneged on that promise almost as soon as the dust in Iraq began to settle.

Mr. de Mello openly tackled the issues of racial profiling and vilifying of Islam, both of which the Bush administration have been engaged in since 9/11. Bush even legislated racial profiling in the so-called Patriot Act. Observe Mr. de Mello’s own words on this issue.

“Fourth, I have been increasingly concerned about what appears to be growing racism, xenophobia and intolerance, exacerbated by the events following 11 September 2001. The rise of the phenomenon of vilifying Islam is particularly disturbing, as are practices such as racial profiling.”

Compare this to statements made by key Bush backers like Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham, who have both called Islam evil.

Mr. de Mello was considered a potential future Secretary General of the UN. One not under American control. And now he’s gone.

It just doesn’t add up. People from within the UN have been some of the loudest voices bringing awareness to Iraq’s plight for a dozen years. The Iraqi people have nothing to gain and everything to lose from this attack, where America has much to gain if they can convince the public that this was the action of Iraqis and not an American plot.

Consider that the Iraqis just lost the only true heavyweight humanitarian observer mission in Iraq. Consider that other observers will now think twice before going to observe what the Americans are doing. Consider that the only people who win from this attack are the neo-conservatives in the White House, who can use this as a pretext to slaughter even more Muslims.

Consider that according to MSNBC, there was a UN Press Conference going on when the bomb hit. But the camera footage they used was from a Japanese camera crew.

A JAPANESE crew?

As in no Americans were present?

At a UN Press conference?

Why wasn’t there any American media present?

Could it be because the UN’s mission and the US’s mission in Iraq are in fact conflicting missions, and things that are being said at UN Press Conferences do not jive with the Bush agenda, and thus don’t get on American TV?

And now the head of the UN Mission is dead, eliminating a serious threat to US troops who may have been open to prosecution for war crimes.

When a capital crime is committed, one must always look for motive. I can see no other group who would have a reasonable motive for this attack except for the Bush administration and their corporate cronies.

Methinks Bush’s night of the long knives has begun.

No justice, no…

PEACE

dh


Yep! Kofi is a slave

20.08.2003 22:52

Thanks dh.

I hate to risk detract from the subject matter but as ignorance and inaction from the very people (?) for whose benefits these murders are being conducted makes me sick.... I have to pick out the idiot sceptic again.

Sceptic you exemplify the way the historical facts are construed to suit your teeny weeney intellect and conscience (if therte is any that is)

Read this you idiot
AUC as everyone knows is a proxy army for CIA started off by Bush Sr.
It is not M16 they use to terrorise innocents instead AK 47s.

 http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_09/issue_16/news_03.html

ram


ASSASINATION OF TOP UN REP MAY PRESAGE WWW3

20.08.2003 23:07



Some elements in the Iraq conflict may have determined to give those opposed
to the invasion a signal taste of the same medicine they have been dishing out.

Discussion Tuesday night on Mysteries of the Mind (Archive soon)

By Fintan Dunne, 19 Aug 03 21:44GMT
Editor, WagKingdom.com

Interests outside Iraq may underlie the assasination of one of the most experienced and top ranking UN officials in the world in a bomb blast at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. At least 20 are dead and scores wounded in the massive blast which severly damaged the Canal Hotel UN building.

The bomb destroyed the office of the UN's special representative to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who used his mobile phone to summon help while still trapped in the rubble. But rescuers, who had to remove rubble by hand, were unable to reach him before he died of his injuries.

Before losing contact, Vieira de Mello, told rescuers an iron bar had fallen on his legs and he could not move.

A UN official at the scene, Salim Lone said Viera de Mello's office, was close to the main explosion. "All this happened right below [his office] window. I guess it was targeted for that," Mr Lone said.

Particularly relevant may be comments during a news conference, August 19, 2003 in Manama, Bahrain. A member of the US/UK-backed Interim Governing Council of Iraq, Adnan Pacachi, was reported saying that the bombing was a message to the United Nations and other countries to change their views towards sending troops to Iraq to maintain security. [REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed]

The explosion follows days after another truck bomb blew up outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, killing 19 people. At the time, in his capacity as UN Special Representative in Iraq, Vieira de Mello strongly condemned the attack. An August 10th, 2003 editorial in the Jordan Times speculated the bombing was linked to an ongoing anti-Jordan campaign orchestrated by Ahmed Chalabi through newspapers over which he has influence.

The editorial recounted some eyewitness reports at the Jordanian embassy bombing said the truck did not explode because it contained a bomb, but because it was actually hit by a missile, claimed to have been fired by a U.S. helicoptor seen hovering two minutes earlier above the embassy.

An audio report today by a Global Radio News correspondent in Iraq, said an unconfirmed eyewitness account described a missile striking the UN Headquarters.

The assasination of Viera de Mello comes as both the USA and Russia are engaging in large scale military exercises.

TOP UN TROUBLESHOOTER

Sergio Vieira de Mello, 55, was the UN's top troubleshooter for hotspots around the world. He was appointed the U.N. special representative to Iraq in late May in what was to be a four-month assignment.

In the 1970's Vieira de Mello served the UN in Bangladesh, Cyprus and Mozambique. In the early 1980's, he was senior political adviser to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon. In the early 1990s, he was in Cambodia, then in Yugoslavia and later became a special U.N. envoy in Kosovo. Recently, he oversaw East Timor's transition to independence. In September 2002, he was appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. He was often described as a possible future U.N. secretary-general.

Vieira de Mello had said the top of his agenda was to consult Iraqi leaders and opinion makers "to make sure that the interests of the Iraqi people come first" in rebuilding their country.

The U.N. role in postwar Iraq was a major issue during the intense Security Council negotiations on a resolution lifting sanctions and authorizing the United States and Britain to administer the country until a democratic government is established. Under pressure from France, Russia and Germany, the secretary-general's special representative was given "independent responsibilities" besides working with Britian and the US to rebuild Iraq.

Fayssal Mekdad, who represents Syria on the UN Security Council said in a statement: that such terrorist incidents "aimed at undermining the vital role of the United Nations in Iraq" cannot break the will of the international community to further intensify its efforts to help the people of Iraq." U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan will cut short a vacation and return to U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday.

In Cairo, the Arab League strongly condemned the attack and urged Iraqi political forces to help prevent such acts from recurring again. "This is a serious, criminal terror act aimed against UN presence in Iraq," the pan-Arab organisation said in a statement.

UNPRECEDENTED MILITARY EXERCISE

Yesterday, Russia began large-scale exercises of Russia's Pacific Navy in the Far East. Over 68 ships and boats, 42 auxiliary vessels, 50 planes and helicopters, up to 30,000 servicemen and civil specialists are engaged. It will be the largest exercise of it's kind in the region for over 20 years.

" This exercise is unprecedented in the history of the Russian Navy in terms of scale, range of participants, and area," Adm. Viktor Kravchenko, chief of Russia's Naval Main Staff, was quoted by Itar-Tass.

Meanwhile, 'U.S. Northern Command, which is responsible for military operations inside the United States, also yesterday began an exercise to test its ability to respond to multiple domestic emergencies simultaneously. Twenty-eight active-duty military units are involved, including the headquarters of Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Va., and Air Combat Command in Langley, Va.

International opponents of the US/UK invasion of Iraq have been content to let the invaders dangle on the end of a guerilla noose of their own making. Their reluctance to contribute to an international peacekeeping force, combined with infrastructure attacks and US casualties meant that in the long term the US mission had already de facto become impossible.

The Jordanian embassy blast and today's UN HQ attack have been characterized as "soft" targets. But they are, of course, also non-US targets.

Some elements involved in the Iraq conflict may have determined to up the ante and give those opposed of the invasion a signal taste of the same medicine they have been dishing out.

But, Mr. Vieira de Mello was not just well connected, he was a pivotal player in the United Nations and the geopolitical elite. His death could lead to an unstoppable cascade of events, or may even directly trigger a scale and scope of retaliation which could plunge the Middle East and the world into a global conflict.

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WEDNESDAY 20th

WE WARNED US OF BLAST SAYS CHALABI
"During a meeting on the 14th (of August), we received information that a large-scale terror attack would take place in Baghdad. The information said that the attack would be aimed at a soft-target, not the American military or forces. The information said the attack would use a truck and would be carried out by using a suicide mechanism or by remote control. We shared this information with the Americans," Chalabi told reporters.

Ten days ago, just after the bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, Walter Slocombe, the senior coalition advisor to the Iraqi Defense Ministry, said in an interview with The Los Angeles Times that "we have to be prepared for a spectacular attack."

U.N. officials tell NewsMax that de Mello's office on the second floor, in an area of the building overlooking a public road, was one of the "softest" sections of the compound. "It is one of the areas which had the least security," confided one U.N. official. Why the U.N.'s security department allowed its most senior official in Iraq to occupy such an exposed office is a question many at the world body's New York City headquarters are now asking.

The road in question was occupied several weeks ago by Coalition troops, which had since re-deployed to other areas around Iraq.

The positioning of the bomb near the envoy's office suggested he was the target of the attack, L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, told CNN.

China's President Hu Jintao urged the United Nations to continue its mission..., and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder blamed the attack on ``forces that do not want the rebuilding of Iraq to take place in peace and freedom.''


dh


Prophet Schroeder

21.08.2003 12:40

extracted from above .....
'Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder blamed the attack on ``forces that do not want the rebuilding of Iraq to take place in peace and freedom.'''

Interests in oil and arms industries are the chief culprit.

ram


Ordo ab Chao

21.08.2003 21:52

ORDO AB CHAO!
BUSH WANTS A UN UPGRADE IN IRAQ


You stage a blackout, you call for a complete overhaul and upgrade of the monopoly power grid system to benefit your cronies and accelerate your globalist FTAA agenda. You stage a bombing of the UN in Iraq, you call for a larger role for the UN and multilateral forces in Iraq. You get the world unified behind you too.

They use the same Hegelian method over and over and over and over and over again and again and again. And you know what? People NEVER catch on. You know why? Because the LIE is far too big for them to grasp. It's like the ant crawling around on an elephant's back. "Elephant? What elepahnt? I'm just walking around on the ground." Most people literally cannot conceive of ANYONE, much less our own leaders stooping to such evil acts. "They would NEVER do that!" they exclaim in shock and horror that you would ever suggest such a thing. So the mind-control is complete. Stockholm Syndrome, where prisoners learn to love and trust their masters, no matter how abusive, dispicable and evil they are.

If you still think Bush is not involved with the UN's hidden agenda and if you still think that terrorists are working independently of the shadow government, you are under a media-concocted spell. Wake up folks! This is the brutal methodology that the globalists employ to get their agenda through.

Paul Walker



Bush in talks to bolster UN role
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1026255,00.html

Bush in talks to bolster UN role
Security advisers discuss plan for Baghdad force
Julian Borger in Washington, Sarah Hall and Jamie Wilson in Baghdad
Thursday August 21, 2003
The Guardian


President George Bush's top national security advisers yesterday held an urgent debate over whether to seek a new UN resolution backing an international stabilisation force, in the wake of Tuesday's devastating truck bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Iraq.
The Blair government is attempting to persuade a reluctant White House to give the international community a greater say in running Iraq in return for a UN endorsement of foreign troop contributions.

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who is due to fly to the UN today, insisted that Britain and the US remained "open-minded" about the UN moving beyond its current humanitarian role. "I started talking to [US] secretary of state Colin Powell last night about this," he added. "Obviously now, given this appalling tragedy ... the UN's role, its practical role and its mandate, will be top of my agenda in New York," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The talks on how to prevent Iraq slipping into chaos started as the UN ordered a "partial evacuation" of its Baghdad staff to Jordan. The number of victims of the bombing seemed certain to rise well above 20, as it emerged that up to 10 bodies could still be in the debris.

US troops yesterday used heavy lifting gear to remove large pieces of the building as the hunt for survivors was replaced by a more methodical and sombre search for the bodies. At one point troops stopped for what looked like a moment's silence before removing a body.

The soldiers mingled with FBI agents hunting clues to whoever set off the bomb that left a 6ft crater.

Human remains found in the area of the crater suggested a suicide bombing, said FBI special agent Thomas Fuentes, but laboratory tests were needed to confirm this.
He said the attackers packed a Soviet-made lorry with more than 1,000lb of old Iraqi army munitions, including a single 500lb bomb.

As the investigation continued, the administration's national security "principals", including Mr Powell, Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and Dick Cheney, the vice-president, were due to discuss the UN's role last night in a video-conference with Mr Bush at his Texas ranch. The defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was in Central America.

An official familiar with the conference agenda said it was unlikely the hawks were ready to compromise over the administration negotiating US command and control of the occupation force and the unquestioned authority of Paul Bremer's coalition provisional authority.

Instead, the administration hawks hope that Tuesday's attack will shock the international community into making a greater military and economic contribution to Iraqi stability. "They are grasping this attack as an opportunity to get more people aboard," the official said.

The official added that the new draft resolution under discussion would "call for more troops, more money, more recognition, especially from the Arab states. It will frame the argument that it is not just the US, but the whole international community who loses if Iraq goes wrong."

It could also include a security council instruction to Syria and Iran to make more effort to secure their borders against the infiltration of Islamic militants.
Until now, almost all potential troop contributors have told Washington they will not send soldiers without a security council mandate.

Mr Bremer yesterday denied that the situation in Iraq was unravelling, arguing that security was improving across much of the country. However, the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, offered a radically different assessment of the situation. "We had hoped that by now, the coalition forces would have secured the environment for us to be able to carry on ... economic reconstruction and institution-building," he said. "That has not happened."

While saying nothing could justify the current violence in Iraq, he noted: "Some mistakes may have been made, some wrong assumptions."




WANT YOUR MOTIVE? HERE IT IS IN DETAIL!
WHO REALLY BENEFITS?


World Sees U.N. Bombing as a Wake-Up Call
The suicide bombing of the United Nations offices in Baghdad is drawing universal condemnation on international English-language news Web sites. But not everyone is drawing the same conclusions. There seem to be two main schools of thought among international commentators. Some emphasize internationalism, arguing that the United States has only itself to blame for its failure to establish order in Iraq and can only get on track by seeking a U.N. mandate for the reconstruction of the country. Others emphasize resolve, insisting that the unprecedented attack on the U.N. transcends the debate over the war and underscores the need for a deeper multilateral determination to defeat the forces that perpetrated the bombing.
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21364-2003Aug20.html

THE BOOGEY MEN ARE ARE STILL OUT THERE SOMEWHERE, BUT THEY ARE JUST TOO CLEVER FOR OUR MOST TALENTED SPIES AND OUR STATE OF THE ART SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY TO TRACK DOWN. BUT DON'T YOU WORRY, WE'LL GET HIM ALRIGHT.
Bin Laden and Mullah Omar 'still alive'
Osama bin Laden, leader of terror network al-Qaida, is still alive according to an audio tape purportedly recorded by a spokesman for the group and broadcast today on an Arab television network.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,1021083,00.html

THE ULTIMATE PRETEXT FOR THE UN TO MOVE IN HAS BEEN CREATED. IT UNIFIES THE WORLD AND THE IRAQI PEOPLE BEHIND, NOT ONLY THE UN, BUT THE WHOLE OCCUPATION, FOR THEIR SAFETY.
Iraqis Blame Foreigners for U.N. Blast
Many Iraqis blamed foreign followers of Osama bin Laden for the devastating U.N. bombing, others pointed to Saddam Hussein loyalists. All agreed that the U.S.-led occupation is ultimately the cause of the chaos in Iraq. ``They attack everything that benefits the people, like electricity lines, oil pipelines or the U.N., `` said Jassem, playing dominos with friends on a sidewalk in central Baghdad. ``What good would that do? It's not like hitting American forces,'' she said. ``They were innocent people. We were hoping the U.N. would be a blessing for us ... we are in very dire situation.''
 http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/content/news/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V5873.AP-Iraq-Baghdad-Re.html

Iraq leaders warned of attack
IRAQ'S new Governing Council was warned about the possibility of a terror attack in Baghdad just days before Tuesday's devastating truck bombing collapsed the United Nations headquarters. Ahmed Chalabi, a key member of the US-picked interim government, said information received on August 14 was passed on to the American authorities. "We received information that a large-scale terror attack would take place in Baghdad," he said. "The information said the attack would be aimed at a soft target, not the American military or forces.
"The information said the attack would use a truck and would be carried out by using a suicide mechanism or by remote control. We shared this information with the Americans," Chalabi said.
 http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0600uk/content_objectid=13316228_method=full_siteid=50082_headline=-Iraq-leaders-warned-of-attack-name_page.html

YES, THIS WILL UNITE UN AND US POLICY IN IRAQ AND AROUND THE WORLD. GLOBAL POLICE STATE HERE WE COME. WHO BENEFITS? DO MUSLIMS BENEFIT? HARDLY. EVERY MUSLIM STATE IS CLAMPING DOWN ON FREEDOMS LIKE ALL THE OTHERS.
U.N.’s immunity to terror ends
Militants likely angered by perceived alliance with U.S.
The bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad today represented the most brazen assault against a civilian U.N. target since the organization’s founding at the end of World War II, ending U.N. personnel’s decades of relative immunity from Middle East terrorism.
 http://www.msnbc.com/news/954735.asp?0dm=W21DN

Military Explosives Used in Baghdad Blast, F.B.I. Says
Military weapons, including a Soviet-built 500-pound bomb, were used to blow up part of a United Nations compound here, the F.B.I.'s special agent in Iraq said today. The explosives also included artillery shells, mortar rounds and grenades, although not all of them went off, said the agent, Thomas V. Fuentes. He said all the materials were from Saddam Hussein's prewar arsenal. "It's not a homemade device," he said. "It was from military munition."
 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/20/international/worldspecial/20CND-IRAQ.html?ex=1062043200&en=affbe8712f5799b3&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE




dh


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