April 5, 2003
HOW WAS HANS BLIX GOING TO STOP THIS?:
'These are all executions' (BBC, 5 April, 2003)Hundreds of bundles of bone in strips of military uniform have been found by British soldiers at an abandoned Iraqi military base on the outskirts of the town of al-Zubayr.Faded black-and-white photographs show corpses mutilated beyond recognition, their faces burned and swollen.
Most of the victims appear to have been executed by gunshots to the head.
Skulls, their teeth broken and missing, look out from plastic bags in unsealed hardboard coffins stacked five deep in a warehouse.
Some of the bags have split open, spilling bones and scraps of clothing onto the dirt floor.
Outside, in a courtyard, a brick wall riddled with bullets stands behind a foot-high tiled platform, with a drainage ditch running in-between.
It looks like "a purpose-built shooting gallery" says one British soldier. [...]
"It is certainly not from the recent conflict but it could be from the one before," the 40-year-old from Fraddam, near Newquay, Cornwall, added.
"We have placed it out of bounds to all personnel and will treat it as a mass grave.
"It's part of being at war - just another thing you have to deal with and get on with it.
"As the war goes on you expect to see everything."
Moments later, a younger soldier dashed over to Capt Kemp with a catalogue of photographs.
"Bloody hell," he whispered.
"These are all executions. You can see the bullets - shots to the head."
Moments later the soldiers and the five western journalists who had been allowed to visit the site were hurriedly ushered out, as senior officers began to realise the possible significance of what had been discovered.
The soldiers are already asking if they could have chanced upon a death camp.
"Isn't it important for Muslims to be properly buried?" one said. "It's like a deliberate disrespect.
"Whoever these people were, they weren't very important to the people who did this."
Can someone explain again why a war to depose this regime is immoral? Posted by Orrin Judd at April 5, 2003 1:11 PM
Surprise... Surprise...
Imagine, a socialist dictator acting in character. I'm sure Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean and Teddy the K will be shocked...shocked!
"Can someone explain again why a war to depose this regime is immoral?"
Sure. Because it it the United States, led by some cowboy, that is waging it.
What don't you get?
Because France tells us so.
Posted by: RC at April 5, 2003 5:32 PMThe Zionists did it, you know.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at April 5, 2003 5:52 PMWonder if Al Jazeera will have the balls to broadcast it (with accurate commentary).
Posted by: Barry Meislin at April 6, 2003 12:40 AMThis is somewhat late coming in, but the new reports off Fox News this morning say that the investigators who were reviewing the documents found in that warehouse have concluded that this wasn't in fact an execution center after all, but a repatriation center for Iraqi and Iranian remains from the Iran-Iraq war. Apparently, the investigators have determined that up to 85% of those remains sets are of Iranians, and the documents - the catalogs, if you will - have all the information on who they were and how they died. There are still some suspicious things to look into (like that wall with the head-high bullet holes and the ditch behind it), but at this point, according to Fox, it looks like this might not in fact after all be quite as sinister as we all initially thought it was.
Posted by: Joe at April 6, 2003 9:55 AM