More political links
Not much commentary from me this time. Too sleepy.
The Guardian says:
US central command in Qatar today revealed it bombed an upmarket residential area of Baghdad yesterday where President Saddam and his aides were believed to be meeting.
At least three buildings were destroyed in the attack on the district of al-Mansour in western Baghdad, which blasted an18-metre-deep crater, ripped orange trees from their roots and left a heap of concrete, mangled iron rods and shredded furniture and clothes.
Rescue workers looking in the rubble for victims said two bodies had been recovered and the death toll could be as high as 14.
Residents standing around the rubble said shrapnel killed victims as far as 200 metres away.
The Globe and Mail describes Kurdish reaction to American and British tanks in Baghdad and the probably death of "Chemical Ali":
"The people of Kurdistan didn't want Ali Hasan al-Majid to be killed; they wanted him to be taken alive and taken to court. ... We are sad that he is dead," grocer Ghafor Rahim said.
"He was supposed to die from psychological torture," added Dilshad Ali, a primary-school teacher. "Or every day, we could come and carve off a piece of his flesh."
...Mr. Ahmed, the museum director and a survivor of the 1988 chemical attack [echoed,] "This was too quick a death."
The men stressed that they wish to see Mr. Hussein taken alive and tried. Mr. Jabbat said the leaders of the regime must be made to account for the victims of the anfal, the campaign of persecution against the Kurds in the 1980s. He noted that many of the names or burial places for the estimated 100,000 victims remain unknown today.
..."I'm proud of the American and British troops, but Kurds were supposed to be a part of it—it was our enemy," said Sakar Mohammed Salah....
The San José Mercury News reprints an AP article about the protest in Oakland Monday morning:
Police opened fire with wooden dowels, "sting balls" and other non-lethal weapons at anti-war protesters outside the Port of Oakland, injuring at least a dozen demonstrators and six longshoremen standing nearby.
...The dowels are supposed to be shot at the ground and richochet up to strike protestors, [Oakland Police Chief Richard] Word said, but some of those injured complained the officers took direct aim at them.
...Deputy Police Chief Patrick Haw [said,] "Police moved aggressively against crowds because some people threw rocks and big iron bolts at officers."
Okay: it's not okay for cops to injure protestors and bystanders. And yet: it's also not okay to throw rocks and big iron bolts at the police. Especially when you're engaging in an anti-war demonstration.
Meanwhile, in old news, it appears that political infighting among those organizations who organize rallies continued unabated, at least up through February. An organization calling themselves Authoritarian Opportunists Who Cozy Up To Genocidal Dictators—for Peace explains that they're opposed to war even though they're also opposed to the tactics of an anti-war group called A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). I suppose it's nice that various groups managed to set aside factionalism long enough to demonstrate, though. (But that was a year ago. I clearly wasn't paying much attention at the time.)
I was going to talk about body armor, but it's late and I'm exhausted. Another time.
