Mike is doing fine. He got to come home for two weeks in Sept. and it was just
> what he (and we) needed before returning for another 6 months. He lives in a
> parking garage between what they call the pyramid building(used to be some
> sort of ministry offices for Saddams' govt.) and the tomohawk building (was
> hit by tomohawk missles during the invasion of 2003) The temperature has
> dropped from being 125+ to now only in the 90's. Hes freezing I'm sure. ha.
> Some rain is expected too, which makes everything really messy, since they
> sleep in a garage. He sleeps in a bunk bed and they have created 'rooms' with
> plastic sheeting and divided up the garage that way. There are bathroom
> facilites, tho MIke says they are really gross. And he eats well in a chow
> hall, which is within walking distance in the base that has been set up for
> our troops. His division is called (I think) The Steel Dragons.
>
> The entire area is called the Green Zone. It is an area about 3-4 miles in
> perimeter that blocks of Baghdad City with barricades and barbed wire. They
> train the Iraqi national guard in the Green Zone and that is the operating
> base for the coalition forces and the seat of the new Iraqi government. It is
> a complete city, with cafes, bazaars, shops and businesses, but each person
> that comes and goes, has to be screened as they go through the checkpoint that
> MIke guards at times. That is where so many Iraqis are being blown up by
> explosive devices (IEDs) and car bombs, sometimes mortars because the terrorists don't want them helping our trooops. They are dying in far greater numbers than our forces. That proves
> they WANT their freedom and desire to better their lives. Mike has made
> friends with some Iraqis that come in to clean his porta johns or do their
> laundry, then learns they have been blown to bits. In fact, he has an Iraqi
> CHRISTIAN friend now that he worries about. He is so in awe of their bravery
> and courage to keep coming, even though they see their countrymen killed daily
> and their families threatened. He knows we are doing a good thing, in spite of
> all the difficulties.
>
> But, Mike has seen some awful things because these people are blown apart
> every day, trying to help us. It has been very difficult on him...esp. when he
> sees the children killed and maimed. He had some real issues with God about
> that (if He is control, does HE care??..God has a wonderful plan for my life?
> What about these kids??...stuff like that) So that was another benefit of
> having him home so we could discuss these things. Please pray for him and the
> other troops. This is a psyhological war every bit as much as a war with
> weapons. The media, the terrorists (they use the psychological tactic of
> TERROR), the ignorant and uninformed, and leftist socialist communist liberals are hurting
> our troops more than any bullet or mortar.
>
> I sent Mike a movie called FahrenHYPE 9/11 that I HIGHLY recommend for
> everyone in America to see. It is an answer to the stupid movie MMoore made
> Fahrenheit 9/11. It is not a nasty 'tit for tat', but a reasoned, somber
> discussion of this war and has the people that Moore exploited in his movie.
> Please rent it and show it to as many people as you can (HOllywood video and
> Blockbuster have it) He loved it and is passing it around. i am going to send
> more too!
asoldiersblog.com

Another blog, from a soldier, from the heart, from Iraq.
Godspeed hero!
Patti

1000 Words from Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces pounded parts of Fallujah from the air and ground Thursday, targeting insurgents in a city where American forces were said to be gearing up for a major offensive.

Al-Jazeera television broadcast a threat by an unspecified armed group to strike oil installations and government buildings if Americans launch an all-out assault on Fallujah. The report was accompanied by a videotape showing about 20 armed men brandishing various weapons, including a truck-mounted machine gun.

Porterville Recorder

Iraq War News
Medical aid group closes Iraq operations: "The international medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said Thursday it was closing its operations in Iraq because of escalating violence and the targeting of aid workers."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq



US strikes at Falluja 'defences': "US forces attack the Iraqi city of Falluja, after reportedly killing five people there in heavy bombing on Wednesday night."

In BBC: Conflict with Iraq (UK Edition)



Iraq calls on 'spectators' to act: "Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urges what he calls spectator countries to get involved in the rebuilding of Iraq."

In BBC: Conflict with Iraq (UK Edition)



Key Saddam trial evidence 'lost': "Possible evidence against ex-Iraq officials may be lost as US-led troops failed to secure key sites, a new report says."

In BBC: Conflict with Iraq (UK Edition)



Captors threaten Hassan release: "Gunmen holding aid worker Margaret Hassan threaten to hand her over to militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."

In BBC: Conflict with Iraq (UK Edition)



Pentagon Planners Assailed for Failing to Secure Evidence of Iraqi Abuses (OneWorld.net): "OneWorld.net - WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov 4 (OneWorld) - While charges continue to fly that U.S.-led coalition forces after their invasion of Iraq failed to secure stockpiles of arms and explosives that are now being used against them, a major U.S. human rights groups says that Pentagon planners also failed to protect potential evidence of massive human rights abuses by the government of ousted President Saddam Hussein."

In Yahoo! News: Iraq



Three dead in Iraq car bombing: US military (AFP): "AFP - At least three Iraqis were killed and seven injured when a car-bomb exploded outside a city council building in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad."

In Yahoo! News: Iraq



U.S. Bombardment Kills Five in Iraq's Falluja: "U.S. artillery shelled Falluja onThursday after overnight air and tank attacks killed fivepeople in Iraq's most rebellious city, braced for an all-outoffensive now the U.S. presidential election is over. (Reuters)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Iraq Aid Agency in Katu.com: Iraq & Terror



Kidnappers grab second U.S. citizen in a week: "BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen kidnapped a Lebanese-American businessman – the second U.S. citizen seized this week in Baghdad – and militants released a tape Wednesday showing the beheading of an Iraqi officer as a warning to those who deal with "the infidel" Americans. An unknown group claimed it beheaded three Iraqi National Guardsmen."

In kgw.com: Iraq News

Truck Bomb Kills Three in Iraq

"PA"


A truck bomb killed at least three people outside local government offices in a town north of Baghdad today.

Police chief Brigadier Mohammed Lateef said nine others were injured when a truck targeting the City Council building exploded in Dujail, 46 miles from the Iraqi capital.

Among the wounded were four members of the Iraqi National Guard, who were guarding the building, he said.

Jassim Mohammed, head of the City Council, said a truck was driving down the wrong side of the road when it rammed into a car parked outside the building and exploded.

“It was a suicide attack,” he said.Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Truck Bomb Kills Three in Iraq

Iraq: Another American seized
04/11/2004 14:28 - (SA)



Baghdad - Gunmen kidnapped a Lebanese-American businessman - the second United States citizen seized this week in Baghdad - and militants released a tape showing the beheading of an Iraqi officer as a warning to those who deal with "the infidel" Americans.

An unknown group claimed it beheaded three Iraqi National Guardsmen.

The escalating violence served as grim reminder of Iraq's rapidly deteriorating security situation, which President Bush must address now that he has won his long electoral contest against Senator John Kerry, who conceded defeat on Wednesday.

Radim Sadeq, an American of Lebanese origin who worked for a mobile phone company, was grabbed about midnight on Tuesday when he answered the door of his home in Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighbourhood, officials said. No group claimed responsibility.

170 kidnappings

It was the second abduction this week in Mansour, where many foreign companies are based. On Monday, gunmen stormed the two-story compound of a Saudi company, abducting six people, including an unidentified American, a Nepalese, a Filipino and three Iraqis, two of whom were later released. No claim has been made for the kidnappings.

More than 170 foreigners have been kidnapped and more than 30 of them killed in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's regime fell in April last year. At least six of the foreigners were beheaded by followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who has sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda.

As the wave of abductions continues, another militant group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, posted a videotape on a website Wednesday showing the beheading of man it said was an Iraqi army major captured in the northern city of Mosul.

A statement by the group called Major Hussein Shanoun an "apostate" and said he confessed to taking part in attacks against insurgents on orders of the Americans.

Just before his death, the victim was shown warning Iraqi soldiers and police soldiers against "dealing with the infidel troops," meaning the Americans.

In another video, aired on Wednesday on Al-Jazeera television, a previously unknown group calling itself the Brigades of Iraq's Honorables said it beheaded three Iraqi National Guards, accusing them of spying for the Americans.

The broadcast showed three men holding up what appeared to be army identification cards sitting in front of a hooded man who read a statement. The video also showed the beheading of the three men, but the network declined to air that footage, the Al-Jazeera newscaster said.

On Wednesday, Hungary's prime minister said the country will withdraw its 300 non-combat troops by the end of March. Hungary had agreed to extend their deployment from an original deadline of December 31 so they could help maintain security during elections in January.

Edited by Andrea Botha

Iraq: Another American seized