Pentagon: 3 Months in Iraq Cost $14B

[CrimsonTide4]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CA01&cp1=1

[ladeia]

Come on now! I'll believe Saddam is dead when Ms. Cleo TELLS me. He and his family are on some Gulla Island kicking it with Tupac sipping out of coconut cups. They (the government) couldn't confirm it anyway because they have NO DNA on Saddam. That bs and we all know it! Disclaimer= This is LaDeia's own opinion and not reflective of others!

LaDeia
"...I am so pretty, oh so pretty..."
- R.Kelly to his new cellmate

[carolyne]

I think it's something how no one is talking about how our president basically sent assassins to kill a man. He ordered murders in our face and no one has anything to say about it. He never once said they would try to capture Saddam and his family. He tried to be slick by saying that Saddam would be "removed" but we all know that he meant "killed". Does this not bother anyone but me? Regardless of the things Saddam has done, who gives Bush the right to say that he needs to die? I guess I shouldn't be surprised since he is the same man that was governor over the state that had the highest death penalty rate.

[1savvydiva]

NEAR KUT, Iraq (April 13) - Iraqi troops released seven U.S. POWs - some wounded but in good condition - to Marines on Sunday, a surprise development near where U.S. troops were entering Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

Clad in an assortment of pajamas and shorts, the soldiers who had been held captive for 22 days clambered out of helicopters to a delighted welcome at an air base in southern Iraq, hours after their release.

The seven were taken by helicopter to this base near Kut and flown to a military airport south of Kuwait City.

They ``are in good shape,'' although two have gunshot wounds, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said.

Shortly after their capture early in the war, the seven had been shown on Iraq's state-run television - giving a human face to the peril confronting American troops.

Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., whose Apache helicopter was forced down March 23, clutched a bottle of water as he walked toward the C-130 for the flight to Kuwait, then grinned widely as a soldier shook his hand.

His father, back in Lithia, Ga., watched shaky video footage of his son on CNN. ``It's him, and I'm just so happy that I could kiss the world!'' Ronald Young Sr. said. ``It's him! It's definitely him.''

Also among the seven was Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, 30, of Orlando, Fla., who was in the Apache with Young.

``He's looks in great shape,'' David Williams Sr. said from Florida. ``I'm also happy for the rest of the POWs and their families, if in fact it is them in these pictures.''

Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, 30, of Fort Bliss, Texas - the only woman among the freed prisoners - limped in slippers and showed a bandage on her right ankle. She had been held since Iraqis ambushed her 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company outside the southern city of Nasiriyah on March 23.

The others were identified by relatives and family friends as Army Sgt. James Riley, 31, Pennsauken, N.J., Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, Alamogordo, N.M., and Army Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, Park City, Kan., and Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, of Mission, Texas - all members of the 507th.

``They look to be in pretty good condition ... all giving the thumbs up,'' said Col. Larry Brown, operations officer for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Some wore blue-and-white striped pajamas, another was in blue shorts. Marines at this base came forward to pat them on the back.

President Bush, who spent the weekend at Camp David, Md., was told Sunday morning of the freed captives.

Capt. David Romley said Marines marching north toward Tikrit were met by Iraqi soldiers north of Samarra who approached the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Company and had the seven Americans with them.

Another spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Capt. Neil Murphy, said the Iraqi soldiers who had brought the Americans had been abandoned by their officers and ``realizing that it was the right thing to do, they brought these guys back.''

``We go to every effort to recover any of the Marines or any of our soldiers taken captive,'' Romley said.

Rumsfeld said Iraqis told U.S. troops that they would find the seven missing soldiers at a location about four or five miles south of Tikrit. ``They said, 'You should go get them,' and they did,'' Rumsfeld said.

When Marine combat headquarters got news that the missing had been found, the troops applauded - rare in combat operations, Murphy said.

``You could feel the happiness and excitement in the combat operations center,'' he said.

Pentagon officials are committed to tracking down all soldiers still missing or captured since the spectacular rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch on April 1.

Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces, underscored his commitment to rescuing coalition captives although he said he didn't think that all POWs and MIAs could be recovered.

``I don't think we could predict that at all,'' he told Fox TV. ``I think it would be a true blessing if we were able to do that, and I don't think we ... can count on it.

``But I can tell you this: Even though we can't count on it, we can work at them hard. And we have been, and we will,'' Franks added.

Officials had been sounding an upbeat note in recent days, saying more Iraqis were willing to talk and share secrets about potential POW sightings now that Saddam's henchmen are gone.

Lynch, who was rescued April 1 from a hospital in Nasiriyah after an Iraqi civilian tipped soldiers off, became the first POW to return home Saturday.

``This morning our family joins America in rejoicing over the news of the safe return of seven brave heroes to U.S. military custody in Iraq,'' Lynch's family said in a statement Sunday. ``This is certainly an answer to our prayers and - we're certain - the prayers of literally millions of other concerned citizens of the world.''



04/13/03 12:36 EDT

[Steeltrap]

I had heard about this soldier being killed in combat, but I had no idea he was AfAm until I went to the Orange County Register site and saw a pix of his daughter. He worked in OC, where I live, an area which is only 2% black.



Tuesday, April 8, 2003
Marine planned a career in Anaheim
Edward Smith, killed near Basra, had a position with city's police force.

By BILL RAMS, ELEEZA V. AGOPIAN and JIM RADCLIFFE
The Orange County Register


He decided to retire in January. He had his future planned.

A job at the Anaheim Police Department, where he already was a rising star. New friends. More time to go camping with his wife and three children.

But then 1st Sgt. Edward "Smitty" Smith's plans changed. The Marine Corps postponed all retirements for a year and called him to serve in the war with Iraq.

"He had been in the Marine Corps for 20 years and never really been in combat," his wife, Sandy Smith, said Monday. "He told me he didn't want to go, but that he thought he should."

Marine Corps officials said Smith, 38, and his company of more than 200 Marines were involved in a firefight near Basra. His wife said he was shot; Marine officials said he died of head wounds.

Sandy Smith fought back tears as she talked about her husband of nearly 15 years and the effect his death will have on their children: Nathan, 12; Ryan, 9; and Shelby, 8.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Sgt. Edward Smith
Memorial Fund
c/o Harbor National Bank
101 E. Lincoln Ave., suite 125
Anaheim, CA 92805
(714) 535-2400
"He was the best man I've ever known," she said. "He was a wonderful father."

Smith was part of the 2nd Tank Battalion in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and received many commendations during his career.

He lived in Vista and drove on weekends to Anaheim, where he had been a reserve officer for almost four years.

At the Police Department, his colleagues described him as a top member of the Special Weapons and Tactics team. He also was Orange County's Best Reserve Officer in 2001 and Reserve of the Year in Anaheim in 2000. He was "top cop" at Palomar police academy and planned to work in Anaheim after the war.

Wednesday, the SWAT team got a letter from Smith written on the back of a cardboard box. He said he was going to ride into Baghdad wearing a SWAT hat.

"He's a guy I kicked in doors with and who watched my back," officer Steve Davis said. "Stuff like this isn't supposed to happen."

On Monday, officers talked about cashing in their vacation time and donating it to Smith's family. They reminisced about the polite, 6-foot-tall, 250-pound man they called "Gunny" - for gunnery sergeant. Even after Smith was promoted, the name stuck.

"I just finished writing him a letter that I planned to send out today," Davis said. "In it, I asked him to tell everybody in his group that we appreciate what they do."

Davis said Smith was a doting husband who showed off his family at the SWAT team Christmas party.

"He kept telling Nathan: 'When Daddy's not around, you're the man of the house,'" Davis said.

Hundreds of police officers signed a card for Smith's family. "Our prayers are with you. Ed is a hero in our eyes," one detective wrote. "I'm so proud to have known Smitty," wrote another.

Smith thought he had completed his last tour after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

He was deployed to Japan, then the Middle East.

In early January, after a family skiing vacation in Mammoth, he submitted his retirement application. Days later, the Secretary of the Navy took the unusual step of forbidding all Marines from leaving the service for 12 months.

The call came. Smith would head toward Iraq on Jan. 31.

"He knew how I felt about it before he left but there was nothing he could do," his wife said. "He told me he'd be back."

Several family members, friends and even the children's teachers gathered Monday at the two-story house south of Camp Pendleton.

Smith's three children smiled as they remembered their dad.

"He likes to sing a lot," Ryan said. "When he comes out of the bathroom, he sings a dorky song."

"We have to go at least once a year camping," Nathan said. "We still will," Shelby said.

A neighbor asked the children: "Aren't you all proud of your dad?"

In unison, the children answered: "Yeah."

[BirthaBlue4]

Originally posted by ladeia
Come on now! I'll believe Saddam is dead when Ms. Cleo TELLS me. He and his family are on some Gulla Island kicking it with Tupac sipping out of coconut cups. They (the government) couldn't confirm it anyway because they have NO DNA on Saddam. That bs and we all know it! Disclaimer= This is LaDeia's own opinion and not reflective of others!

LaDeia
"...I am so pretty, oh so pretty..."
- R.Kelly to his new cellmate

Pretty much, me and my ls's came to the same conclusions. You know god and well he left. They were able to get into his palaces a little too easily if you ask me...

[CrimsonTide4]

Video image of captured former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) displayed at a news conference in Baghdad Sunday Dec. 14, 2003 in this image from television. Top U.S. administrator in Iraq (news - web sites) L. Paul Bremer confirmed the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in a house near his hometown of Tikrit, eight months after the fall of Baghdad. (AP Photo/APTN)




Saddam Hussein Captured Alive Near Tikrit
32 minutes ago

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - American forces captured a bearded Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) as he hid in a dirt hole under a farmhouse near his hometown of Tikrit, ending one of the most intensive manhunts in history. The arrest, eight months after the fall of Baghdad, was carried out without a shot fired and was a huge victory for U.S. forces.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer told a news conference Sunday. "The tyrant is a prisoner."


Saddam was captured Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in a specially prepared "spider hole" in a house in Adwar, a town 10 miles from Tikrit, said Lt Col. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq (news - web sites). The hole was six to eight feet deep, with enough space to lie down, camouflaged with bricks and dirt and supplied with an air vent to allow long periods inside.


A U.S. defense official said Saddam admitted his identity when captured.


Sanchez, who saw Saddam overnight, said the deposed leader "has been cooperative and is talkative." He described Saddam as "a tired man, a man resigned to his fate."


In the capital, radio stations played celebratory music, residents fired small arms in the air in celebration and passengers on buses and trucks shouted, "They got Saddam! They got Saddam!"


Eager to give Iraqis evidence that the elusive former dictator had indeed been captured, Sanchez played a video at the news conference showing the 66-year-old Saddam in custody. Saddam, with a thick, graying beard and bushy, disheveled hair, was seen as doctor examined him, holding his mouth open with a tongue depressor, apparently to get a DNA sample. Saddam touched his beard during the exam. Then the video showed a picture of Saddam after he was shaved, juxtaposed for comparison with an old photo of the Iraqi leader while in power.


Iraqi journalists in the audience stood, pointed and shouted "Death to Saddam!" and "Down with Saddam!"


Though the raid occurred Saturday afternoon American time, U.S. officials went to great length to keep it quiet until medical tests and DNA testing confirmed Saddam's identity.


Washington hopes Saddam's capture will help break the organized Iraq resistance that has killed more than 190 American soldiers since President Bush (news - web sites) declared major combat over on May 1 and has set back efforts at reconstruction. U.S. commanders have said that while in hiding Saddam played some role in the guerrilla campaign blamed on his followers.


In the latest attack, a suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car outside a police station Sunday morning west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 more, the U.S. military said.


Saddam was being held at an undisclosed location, and U.S. authorities have not yet determined whether to hand him over to the Iraqis for trial, Sanchez said. Iraqi officials want him to stand trial before a war crimes tribunal created last week.


"This success brings closure to the Iraqi people," Sanchez said.


"Saddam Hussein will never return to a position of power from which he can punish, terrorize, intimidate and exploit the Iraqi people as the did for more than 35 years."


Ahmad Chalabi, a member of Iraq's Governing Council, said Sunday that Saddam will be put on trial.


"Saddam will stand a public trial so that the Iraqi people will know his crimes," said Chalabi told Al-Iraqiya, a Pentagon (news - web sites)-funded TV station.


British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) hailed the capture, saying the deposed leader "has gone from power, he won't be coming back."





"Where his rule meant terror and division and brutality, let his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the people of Iraq," Blair said in brief comments at his 10 Downing St. office.

In Tikrit, U.S. soldiers lit up cigars after hearing the news of Saddam's capture.

Some 600 troops from the 4th Infantry Division along with Special Forces captured Saddam, the U.S. military said. There were no shots fired or injuries in the raid, called "Operation Red Dawn," Sanchez said.

Two men "affiliated with Saddam Hussein" were detained with him, and soldiers confiscated two Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, a taxi and $750,000 in $100 bills, Sanchez said. The two men were "fairly insignificant" regime figures, a U.S. defense official said.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in the capital, and shop owners closed their doors, fearful that the shooting would make the streets unsafe.

"I'm very happy for the Iraqi people. Life is going to be safer now," said 35-year-old Yehya Hassan, a resident of Baghdad. "Now we can start a new beginning."

Earlier in the day, rumors of the capture sent people streaming into the streets of Kirkuk, a northern Iraqi city, firing guns in the air in celebration.

"We are celebrating like it's a wedding," said Kirkuk resident Mustapha Sheriff. "We are finally rid of that criminal."

"This is the joy of a lifetime," said Ali Al-Bashiri, another resident. "I am speaking on behalf of all the people that suffered under his rule."

Despite the celebration throughout Baghdad, many residents were skeptical.

"I heard the news, but I'll believe it when I see it," said Mohaned al-Hasaji, 33. "They need to show us that they really have him."

Ayet Bassem, 24, walked out of a shop with her 6-year-old son.

"Things will be better for my son," she said. "Everyone says everything will be better when Saddam is caught. My son now has a future."

After invading Iraq on March 20 and setting up their headquarters in Saddam's sprawling Republican Palace compound in Baghdad, U.S. troops launched a massive manhunt for the fugitive (news - Y! TV) leader, placing a $25 million bounty on his head and sending thousands of soldiers to search for him.

Saddam was one of the most-wanted fugitives in the world, along with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network who hasn't been caught despite a manhunt since November 2001, when the Taliban regime was overthrown in Afghanistan (news - web sites).

Saddam proved elusive during the war, when at least two dramatic military strikes came up empty in their efforts to assassinate him. Since then, he has appeared in both video and audio tapes. U.S. officials named him No. 1 on their list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, the lead card in a special deck of most-wanted cards.

Saddam's sons Qusai and Odai — each with a $15 million bounty on their heads — were killed July 22 in a four-hour gunbattle with U.S. troops in a hideout in the northern city of Mosul. The bounties were paid out to the man who owned the house where they were killed, residents said.

Adnan Pachachi, member of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council, said Saddam's capture will bring stability to Iraq.

"The state of fear, intelligence and oppression is gone forever," Pachachi said. "The Iraqi people are very happy and we look forward to a future of national reconciliation between Iraqis in order to build the new and free Iraq, an Iraq of equality."


SO CAN WE LEAVE NOW!?!?!?!?!!

[1savvydiva]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4

SO CAN WE LEAVE NOW!?!?!?!?!!

My sentiments exactly. A friend of mine just found out that he will be shipped off two days before Christmas. WTF?

[btb87]

Girl, you gon' make me late for church!

Lemme go check out CNN RIGHT NOW!!!!

ETA: My nearly 9 year old daughter was wondering what was happening when I gave her the channel of CNN to turn to while I was getting ready for church. She wanted to know what was going on, so I told her that Saddam Hussein was captured. She says "So the war is over?"

Sweetie, I wish it were that simple. . .

[AXEAM]

Personally I feel for the guy he has been the whipping boy for America for several years now. In my opinion w/o good cause after 1991 the guy did nothing to be considered a threat to the world community,and to try to connect him to Sept 11th is asinine. He's just another victim of western aggression to be demonized and hunted down as if he was some prize in a hunting contest........and no Crimsontide the troops won't be coming home no time soon b/c now it's time to make a profit off this needless so called war.

[Steeltrap]

I suspect this capture = another four more years of Gorgie Dubya Boosh. And this comes from a registered non-partisan voter.

[midwesterngirl]

Originally posted by Steeltrap
I suspect this capture = another four more years of Gorgie Dubya Boosh. And this comes from a registered non-partisan voter.

God help us all,I think you are exactly right.

[RedefinedDiva]

Originally posted by Steeltrap
I suspect this capture = another four more years of Gorgie Dubya Boosh. And this comes from a registered non-partisan voter.

When I saw this on the news this morning, I thought "Isn't it IRONIC that Saddam has been captured just weeks before the Democratic nomination and campaigning kicks into full swing?"

Things that make you go hmmmm.......

[Jill1228]

Shudder! G-d forbid!

Originally posted by Steeltrap
I suspect this capture = another four more years of Gorgie Dubya Boosh. And this comes from a registered non-partisan voter.

[Honeykiss1974]

Originally posted by RedefinedDiva
When I saw this on the news this morning, I thought "Isn't it IRONIC that Saddam has been captured just weeks before the Democratic nomination and campaigning kicks into full swing?"

Things that make you go hmmmm.......

I thought this too. What a nice Christmas present to America....Saddam and the hope that most of our troops will be coming home soon.

And all right before campaign time

Except for the unshaven beard, Saddam must have been eating well while on the run because he looks like he has GAINED weight.