Publisher’s Notes: I haven’t been to the P.O. Box in several weeks, as I have been busy. When I got there tonight, I found a note and copy of an old column waiting for me – along with a box of Kettle Korn from my old friend Carl K. in PA.  That, which follows below, is a note with reference to the original posting of June 16, 2003, which was sent to me by a long-time reader, Raimond B., who stated in his note:

Jeff,
I came across this recently in a box of my old papers and articles. What scares the hell out of me, is that the article seems much more relevant today, than when it was first posted on your website.

Read it, and draw your own conclusions. (JB/09.25.09)

BAGHDAD or the HEARTLAND?

~ Foreword ~

Title grab you? Did it suck you in? That is what it was meant to do. The Publisher of The Federal Observer has taken some editorial license with the original title to the following reports to demonstrate a point.

For those of you who have been around and have had serious concerns over our government’s continued expansion and (subsequent) intrusion into our private lives (all in the name of ‘Homeland Security’), the opening titles and comments – along with the reporting in this column – should reawaken your concerns about Big Brother. If it doesn’t – then it’s too late for you and your’s. Although the following is currently taking place in Iraq – it could just as easily be taking place in hometown America.

Coming Soon to a town home near you?

Be on your guard and keep your powder dry – our troops will be returning home soon with plenty of practice in the ‘art’ of confiscation! Does practice really make perfect? You be the judge! (JB)

U.S. Troops Raid Iraqi Homes
KHALDIYAH, Iraq — Armed with fresh intelligence, U.S. troops continued sweeping through towns west of Baghdad Monday, looking for suspected militia leaders and caches of outlawed weapons.

Families of those taken into custody warned that resistance would only increase.

The second day of Operation Desert Scorpion kicked off after dawn. The forceful new search for opponents of the U.S.-led coalition and Saddam Hussein holdouts in Iraq came as an amnesty program for people turning in heavy weapons expired.

Meanwhile, attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades against a civilian bus and a U.S. military convoy in separate incidents Sunday that wounded at least 10 Americans, two of them seriously, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday.

In the first attack, “an enemy individual fired a rocket-propelled grenade at 4th Infantry Division soldiers during an attempted ambush, hitting a civilian bus that was passing a military convoy near the town of AL Mushahidah,” about 15 miles north of Baghdad, a U.S. military statement said.

At least two Americans were seriously wounded in that attack, said Capt. John Morgan, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. Six others were lightly wounded.

Soldiers returned fire “to protect the convoy and the civilian bus,” said the statement from U.S. Central Command.

It was unclear if there were casualties on the civilian bus, the statement said.

Also Sunday, assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. military convoy near Ad Dujayl, a town 35 miles north of Baghdad, lightly wounding two soldiers, Morgan said.

“The convoy returned fire, and the attackers fled the area. A quick reactionary force was dispatched to provide security for the convoy and pursue the attackers,” the Centcom statement said.

The incidents were the latest in a series of attacks against U.S. occupation forces in Iraq. In response, the military has begun large-scale sweeps around the country in search of insurgents and weapons.

During Operation Desert Scorpion, observation helicopters circled a few hundred yards above as more than 100 military police and infantrymen in 30 Humvees and four Bradley fighting vehicles poured into the small town of Khaldiyah, 45 miles west of Baghdad.

They targeted six homes and took away nine men, acting on information about where suspected anti-American insurgents were hiding and illegal weapons stockpiled.

On the outskirts of Ramadi, about 18 miles farther west, troops seized four brothers from one home and two brothers from a neighboring family.

There were no immediate reports of injuries in the raids.

In Ramadi, the families were sleeping when the armored column rumbled into their village at 5:15 a.m., blaring an Arabic-language warning from loudspeakers: “These are coalition forces. Please stay in your homes and open your doors. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Troops bound everyone in the two houses, including women, with plastic handcuffs and moved them into a nearby field while they searched the homes. They found no weapons.

Omar Mishrif Faleh, an older brother of the detainees, said the soldiers knew what they were looking for and sought out the house of his brother who had served in Saddam’s army.

“Someone must have informed on us,” he said, although he denied that his arrested brothers, aged 20 to 30, were engaged in anti-American activities.

Minutes after the soldiers left, the Faleh house was crowded with sympathizing neighbors who tried to comfort the mother, who was weeping and trembling.

“The resistance is going to increase,” said Abdul Qader Fahd, 30, a teacher. “Dealing with civilians like this is terrorism.”

In Khaldiyah, U.S. commanders said they were acting on a tip from an Iraqi man captured after he and two other men fired rocket-propelled grenades Saturday night at a routine U.S. patrol near an abandoned Iraqi ammunition dump. The other two men escaped and the prisoner pointed to two homes he said the insurgents had been using as a hideout.

When military police entered the homes, they found only families and a few hundred rounds of pistol and assault rifle ammunition buried in the backyard of one of them. Female military police officers and medics stayed with the women and children as the troops searched the house, finding Iraqi Republican Guard uniforms and other military items but nothing illegal.

In an old box used to transport artillery shells, the soldiers found strips of highly explosive cordite that had been emptied out of artillery shells.

Ibrahim Assam, a 30-year old man living in the house, said he and his father had sold their guns, but couldn’t find a buyer for the ammunition. He said the children used the cordite to make fireworks.

“I don’t know anything about attacks on the Americans,” Assam insisted.

Next door, soldiers found one pound of C4 explosives on the roof along with a detonator cord.

“I don’t know about it. If I did know about it, I would have hidden it or thrown it away,” Ahmed Abbas, the owner of the second home said.

The explosives appeared to come from an Iraqi ammunition dump about 1,000 yards away, across an open field. Soldiers scanning the field spotted about 50 crates of artillery shells and a place nearby where looters were taking off the explosive warheads, dumping out the cordite and taking away the brass shells to sell as scrap metal.

U.S. troops had armed local volunteers to guard the hundreds of ammunition bunkers, but they had apparently failed to protect it at night.

As the low-flying helicopters spotted more ammunition cases on the roofs of other homes, they directed the military police to raid those buildings. The soldiers arrested eight more men, seized more C4 explosives weapons and anti-tank weapons. They allowed each family to keep an assault rifle for home protection.

“I didn’t think we’d find anything, I figured the bad guys would have left by now,” Capt. Chris Carter, the infantry commander, said, guessing that the Iraqis who attacked his men moved after their colleague was captured. “But it shows the people here that we are willing and able to do this kind of thing if we need to.”

The Associated Press contributed to the above report.

Original URL on the Federal Observer
http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=6035

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