Hit man stalks U.S. troops

[Nambe]

UPI

The commander of the Joint Coalition Task force in Iraq says a highly trained assassin is stalking U.S. soldiers in Baghdad.

General Ricardo Sanchez told an Australian newspaper about the hit man, who had been the subject of rumors on the streets of the capital for weeks.

"This is a very well-trained assassin who knows how to identify his target. He knows how and when to attack and when to escape. There is no doubt in my mind this is a professional," he said.

The Australian reported Friday that of the 65 American soldiers who have died since President George Bush declared a cessation of hostilities on May 1, 31 have been killed by hostile action and about half a dozen may have been killed by the assassin. ---
Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

[htuttle]

1. "Hit Man?" "Assassin?"

Don't we call those guys "Snipers" when they work for the U.S.?

:eyes:

[psychopomp]

9. Yes, because of the tactic

I am not sure, but I think several of the soldiers killed in the last month have been shot in the head at close range. Then, the assailant escapes. This was the m/o at the university killing last week, IIRC.

This description of the killer as an assassin is feasible.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

10. eh-hmm...the SOURCE of the word "assassin"...

you'd think that someone in the misunderestimadministration might've noticed something about this, especially considering the proximity...

http://www.slider.com/enc/4000/Assassin.htm
Arab.,=user of hashish, European name for the member of a secret order of the Ismaili sect of Islam. They are known as Nizaris after Nizar ibn al-Mustansir, whom they supported as caliph. The members of the order were distinguished by their blind obedience to their spiritual leader and by their use of murder to eliminate foes. The order was founded by Hasan ibn al-Sabbah when he gained control (c.1090) of the mountain fortress of Alamut, located S of the Caspian Sea. The order spread over Persia and Syria, gaining control of many strongholds, and it soon inspired terror throughout the Muslim world. Members were organized into strict classes, according to degree of initiation into the secrets of the order. The most important of the classes were the devotees, who sought martyrdom and were the instruments of assassination. Hasan and the grand masters who ruled the order after him wielded great political power until the coming of the Mongols. Hulagu Khan attacked and destroyed (1256) their fortresses and massacred most of the Persian branch of the sect. The Syrian branch, with which the Crusaders came in contact, suffered a similar fate at the hands of Baybars, the Mamluk sultan of Egypt. Only scattered groups of the order survived; they are said to persist today, particularly in N Syria. Tales of the Crusaders and the writings of Marco Polo brought the Assassins and the Old Man of the Mountain into European folklore. The term assassin came into English and is used today to mean murderer and particularly one who kills for political motives. See Bernard Lewis, The Assassins (1967); Enno Franzius, History of the Order of Assassins (1969).

[NYC]

22. I thought we called them sharpshooters --

when they are on our side?

[AnnabelLee]

2. How come

when they're on "our side" they're called snipers, but when they're not they're called assassins?

On edit: D'oh! I crossed posts with htuttle.

[LauraK]

3. Calling dimson a president has them all confused.

Spades aren't really spades in the US media any more.

[Karenina]

21. Yes, my dear,

We are truly on the other side of the Looking Glass. Alice ain't got nuthin' on us anymore. "OFF WITH HIS HEAD!" :silly:

[saigon68]

30. He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Nor apparently, the brightest bulb on the tree.

[trumad]

4. Anybody see "Enemy at the Gates"?

[Athame]

11. Great movie, Trumad

and appropriate on many other levels. It was just what I was thinking on reading of the assassin/sniper (only I had forgotten the name of the movie :( I'm very bad that way).

[JohnKleeb]

28. yeah I did

[DemoTex]

5. Another underestimation by our military?

Do they have ballistics evidence that leads them to the conclusion that this is the work of a lone sharpshooter? It is a combat zone and it is not inconceivable that the Iraqis have military-trained snipers in their midst. Numerous trained snipers, sniping away.

[bemildred]

8. Much more comforting to pretend it is one specialist.

:puke:

[saigon68]

13. PAYBACK IS A BITCH.

Deliberate MURDER of thousands of civilians, sometimes opens PANDORA's BOX

If someone deliberatedly killed your 12 year old brother, What would you do ???

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target%20Homepage.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=21&rnd=514.8499661939907

Bring What On?
By David H. Hackworth


This conversion won’t be brought about by U.S. armor brigades doing “shock and awe” to peasant villages or a U.S. Army soldier killing a 12-year-old boy as he stood on the roof of his family’s home. The soldier said the boy was holding an AK-47. His family insists he had no weapon and was on the roof to escape the heat. Now his family – newly manufactured water for the G’s – has vowed revenge by a factor of 10.

[PsN2Wind]

20. Hackworth

Hack blows these people off in the article as criminals, gangsters, Islamic crazies, rather than saying they may well be people that aren't thrilled by a foreign superpower that came in and decimated their country for trumped up reasons and in the process killed thousands, if not tens of thousands of their friends and countrymen.
Much as the media always referring to the attackers as insurgents, rather than what they truly are, partisans

[saigon68]

24. He does say it is a Guerrilla war

He was one of the first to say there was trouble with the shock and awe.

[GregW]

6. Is this what * wanted when he said, "Bring 'em on"?

Sounds like they're bringin' it ... and we ain't likin' it.

[Best_man23]

7. It wouldn't surprise me

If there is a professional hitter working in Baghdad. It could be that he (or she, but not likely) is an Iraqi helping to defend the homeland.

Most likely, it is a military sniper. If irony strikes, we will probably discover the sniper was trained by the U.S. during the 1980s.

[Sterling]

12. I doubt it is one person

I am sure our brilliant military leaders would like to believe there is only one person in Iraq willing and capable of knocking off our troops but that hardly seems realistic.

[Pallas180]

14. I assume the military ballistics know the difference between a close

up shot and powder burns by an assassin and a long distance
shot by a sniper. If the general or major or whatever he was
says it's an assassin, maybe he knows what he's talking about.

After all, he ain't in Washington and carrying on the party line.
The military at this moment in time is not thrilled with the moron
and the cabal.

[saigon68]

15. LESS AND LESS THRILLED

with the Cabal as time rolls on.

Unfortunately it appears the military will be there a long time.

[Sterling]

16. I am not confused sir

I am aware that this is not a sniper. However the idea that this is the work of one person and not a tactic that will be used by others against our troops is the kind of thinking our military is famous for.

[Davis_X_Machina]

17. Anyone who's seen the movie...

...Michael Collins, or read Tim Pat Coogan's Collins bio, is familiar with the tactic.

One of the long-running splits in the Irish revolutionary movement was between the urban-guerilla approach, which used assassination, and the revolutionary-army approach, which used armed bands in set-piece attacks against British regular forces.

Coogan made the point in his book that most successful national-liberation movements who could not count on foreign intervention (hence, not Vietnam, where the NVA wasn't actually 'foreign') adopted the first approach.

[KeepItReal]

18. Now it is the lone gunman theory?

A byproduct of not engaging in a real fight to defeat the "enemy" (paying off high Iraqi military officials to not fight us) is the fact that the Iraqi troops that we didn't fight or capture still have all their weapons and training that can't be taken away.

It does not take a rocket scientist, or assassin to know the best way to put a man down is to aim at someplace other than where he has body armor or a helmet. With between 10-25 attacks on our troops *EVERY* day, the military is damn lucky that we are only getting the reported 1 K.I.A. per day since Bush & Co. delcared "Mission Accomplished".

'Luck troops.

[TeeYiYi]

19. kick

TYY :kick:

[RetroLounge]

23. A lone gunman?

What about the sandy knoll theory?...

[NYC]

27. That's funny.

.

[whatelseisnew]

25. the sitting ducks are squirming n/t

[saigon68]

26. BRING IT ON

Looks like Chimp is getting his wish

[dArKeR]

29. I knew it was 1 hitman an everyone else in Iraq doesn't have guns

nor do they want to kill Americans!

How can stories be written without the author identifying themselves? Especially for 'mainstream' media whores. What are they trying to cover-up by not putting their names on the story?