Two independent foreign media services have reported that three Romanian journalists and a naturalized American journalist have been kidnapped in Iraq. But don't try to find the story in the major media. The Jawa Report the leading American authority on this one. Also previously covered by Jawa here and here.

No wonder Google News dropped The Jawa Report.

They're competent.

Update: CNN has now caught on.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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CAMP BUCCA, IRAQ -- U.S. military police Friday thwarted a massive escape attempt by suspected insurgents and terrorists from this southern Iraq Army base that houses more than 6,000 detainees when they uncovered a 600-foot tunnel the detainees had dug under their compound.

"We were very close to a very bad thing," Major Gen. William Brandenburg said Friday after troops under his command discovered the tunnel that prisoners had painstakingly dug with the help of makeshift tools.

Within hours of the discovery on the first tunnel, a second tunnel of about 300 feet was detected under an adjoining compound in the camp, which holds 6,049 detainees. The elaborate escape is reminiscent of the 1994 movie, "The Shawshank Redemption," where a prisoner burrows his way out of prison.

(hat tip Drudge)

Update: Added the quote from the article for context.

Update 2: Added to the Beltway Traffic Jam.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I wrote in early February that the U.S. had won a psychological battle of sorts against terrorism by being able to laugh at its increasing desperation.

Today, Iraqis took a major step towards winning their own psychological battle against terrorism with a very real military victory against a terrorist training base, killing 85 terrorists with the loss of seven Iraqi police commandos killed and six wounded.

This event is a concrete step forward for Iraqi self-determination, proving they are becoming ever more capable of their own security, even if they are a long way from a U.S. withdrawal. You would think that the media, highly critical of the U.S.-led war, would welcome the news and be very excited about this development. You would think that, but you'd be wrong.

CNN chose to report the angle that the battle showed terrorist forces were weakening, but chose not to make much of the mention that this was the first offensive fought primarily by Iraqi government forces, with the U.S. forces in a supporting role.

The AP story on Yahoo! said that "U.S. and Iraqi forces" carried out the raid, but again, made no special mention that the Iraqis were the primary forces involved military involvement. MSNBC mirrored that approach, as did Fox News.

ABC News put the story of the successful raid well below the fold, instead focusing on the "news" that Osama bin Laden had evaded capture (thanks for the late-breaking news, ABC).

Perhaps not surprisingly, CBS News buried the story completely, not having a single apparent link to the story on their front page, but chose instead to answer such burning questions as "Do bad teeth make bad babies?" and "Why Marry Scott Peterson?"

Of all the major news organizations it was the BBC that recognized the importance of today's raid, with the headline "Iraqi Troops Blitz Insurgent Camp," and a story focusing on the Iraqi commando involvement.

This a big day for Iraq. Too bad the rest of the world didn't notice.

Update: Apparently some of the world did notice, and one of the better bloggers out there noticed it. Tigerhawk has a good article up about how Stratfor has more or less reversed its position from three months ago on the ability of Iraqi security forces to combat the insurgency. The Stratfor revision cites the successful March 22 raid specifically as a validation of an emerging Iraqi army.

Home

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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According to Guiliana Sgrena, America forces fired "300-400" bullets at the vehicle she was in as it sped towards the Baghdad International Airport.

Pictures say thousands words, and every one of these says that Guiliana Sgrena is wrong. I know a bit about firearms, and I know a bit about shooting sheet metal objects (old real estate signs, acquired legally, are great target holders). The five pictures of Sgrena's escape vehicle on the Jawa Report doesn't appear to match up with her story of 300-400 rounds, for several reasons.

There aren't enough holes in the windshield and other passenger compartment glass. As a matter of fact, only one is readily apparent in the windshield, which should have been perforated by slightly off-target shots at the car's engine block, and ricochets from shots that did hit the engine block, frame, and other heavy metal elements in the car. The rear glass and backseat passenger's window on the driver's side also show no damage.

There are no holes in the sheet metal around the engine block, one apparent hit to the driver's headrest and only one apparent tire puncture. I say apparent, because the pictures are too blurry to be sure what is going on here, but that the arrows are pointing at bullet holes are the obvious assumption we have to work with.

These photos immediately establish several points with solid evidence proving Sgrena wrong for anyone with a minimal knowledge of military weapons.

M2 heavy machine guns, M240 medium machine guns and M249 light machine guns are the only belt-fed weapons in wide deployment by U.S. ground forces in Iraq to the best of my knowledge (Rambo's famous and fragile M60 is largely phased out). These are the only weapons that could lay down the amount of fire claimed by Sgrena in the amount of time she claimed. M-4 carbines, M-16 rifles and even the experimental XM-8 rifle all use 30-round box magazines, and would have had to make multiple reloads in that time period, even if several rifles were firing. The physics of her claim simply doesn't add up.

However, all of these rifles have single-shot capability, which is the preferred method of operation when placing precision shots, which most closely matches the few bullet holes in the vehicle.

If the rate of fire Sgrena claims was true, by definition it would have required automatic fire to occur in the few seconds she claims it did. As anyone who has ever watched an action movies knows, weapons firing in automatic mode "walk" their fire across the target area. This did not happen here, or the sheet metal and glass around the three apparent holes would contain many, many more bullet impacts.

Furthermore, M2, M240, and M240 machine guns would have left very dramatic high-velocity exit wounds on the passenger side of the vehicle, made all the more dramatic (and "holey") by shrapnel. And yet, these pictures do not exist.

We are left to draw only one logical conclusion for this, and that is that Guiliana Sgrena dramatically inflated the number of shots fired at her speeding car. That she is alive to make the claim only confirms it.

Disclaimer: Confederate Yankee is not now, nor has ever been, a crime scene investigator at home or abroad... but I can tell what a bullet hole looks like, and they aren't here.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 04:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What Glenn Reynolds asks for, Glenn Reynolds receives.

The excellent and informative WSJ article that created Glenn's longing is here.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don't particularly like placing blame on what was most likely a tragic accident, but I'm not going to let a terrorist-sympathizing communist nor her weak-willed supporters in the Italian government get the only digs in, either.

Guiliana Sgrena was the Italian communist journalist who went to Iraq with the sole apparent goal of making the war look bad as possible, in hopes of pressuring her government to pull out of Iraq. She was conveniently taken hostage, and appeared in a tearful video the very day the Italian senate was to vote on continued involvement in Iraq, pleading for her life and an Italian withdrawal.

On March 4, Sgrena was released by her captors when the Italian government paid them off with a ransom of millions of dollars, thus supplying the terrorists funds to by more weapons to kill more coalition soldiers and Iraqi policemen, judges, women, and children.

Because they were supplying money to the terrorists, the Italians apparently kept American forces in the dark. The Italian government felt we wouldn't appreciate them financing terrorism.

I wonder where they might get that idea.

In any event, SISMI (Italian intelligence) did not bother to let their American counterparts know all the details of this bribery, err, rescue mission. As a result, American military forces at the checkpoint did not expect the Italians, and responded within their rules of engagement when the car carrying Sgrena refused to stop.

Becuase of their willingness to capitulate to terrorism and conceal the truth, an Italian security officer, Nicola Calipari, is dead.

There should be a full investigation not only of this event, but of Sgrena's alleged kidnapping and full month of so-called captivity. If she is found to have willingly helped the terrorists as her own words seem to imply, then Guilian Sgrena should face manslaughter charges for helping to create a situation that led to Mr. Calipari's death.

For more information about Sgrena's "abduction," check out The Jawa Report which has covered this story extensively.

Cox & Forkum show what could have happened if U.S. forces did not handle the situation the way they did.

Update: So, Matt Drudge, what did you really think of Sgrena's claims?

Thanks, Matt.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As promised, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon connecting activist/actor/musician Kevin Bacon, to conspiracy theory-spouting liberal congressman Maurice Hinchey, to terrorist mastermind and head of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.

It goes something like this:

1. Kevin Bacon is a co-founder of moveon.org.
2. Hinchey signed a letter supporting moveon.org's attempt to run an anti-Bush commerical.
3. Hinchey is the featured speaker for an International ANSWER rally on March 19, 2005.
4. A key member of the steering commitee of International ANSWER is the national Muslim Student Association, which has had at least one chapter raise money for recognized terrorist groups.
5. The MSA is a front group of the the radical Wabbabist sect of Saudi Arabia most closely associated with al Qaeda.
6. al Qaeda's Wahhabi leader? Osama bin Laden.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Jawa Report called it from the start. I guess one can only engage in making just so much anti-American propoganda for the enemy before burning out and needing to come home and rest.

Update: Sgrena was apparently shot and wounded and a bodyguard killed by U.S. Forces at a checkpoint roadblock somewhere in Iraq. Notoriously aggressive Italian drivers barreling down on soldiers primed to repel vehicular suicide bombers is a recipe for disaster. As you would expect, the Democratic Underground thinks Eason Jordan should be reinstated at CNN.

Update: Speaking of CNN:

According to a multinational forces statement, the car approached the checkpoint at high speed about 9 p.m. (1 p.m. ET)

U.S. troops "attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car," the statement said. "When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."