U.S. Retracts Report of Soldiers' Bodies Being Mutilated

[Ruby Romaine]

U.S. Retracts Report of Soldiers' Bodies Being Mutilated

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 24 — Military officials retracted a report today that two American soldiers had been slashed in their throats in an attack Sunday in the northern city of Mosul.

A military official here, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the two soldiers had died of gunshot wounds to the head and that their bodies had been pulled by Iraqis from their car and robbed of their personal belongings.

The military official said that contrary to some reports, the men had not been beaten by rocks or mutilated in any way.


http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/24/international/24CND-IRAQ.html?ex=1070341200&en=4fd2f3c1df607d11&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[Tempest]

1. How do they explain the pictures?

One picture shows a soldier with his foot torn off.
Another shows massive blood loss from wounds other than a gunshot to the head.

[dvddrone]

2. So what do you bet...

that the facts won't get in the way of the mutilation story being repeated over, and over, and over?

Elizabeth

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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[htuttle]

5. FACTS?

How ironic, that you make a claim on 'facts'...What makes you sure that these 'facts' are actually 'facts' and not the other 'facts' that we (and the whole rest of the planet) got yesterday?

"Facts are stupid things"
--Pres. Ronald Reagan

[dvddrone]

18. Hmm.....

How about - "Knowing how this administration operates." I'll go with that one. They, and their flunkies on Wholly Without Merit TV, will repeat vague and unsubstantiated accusations of our troops being mutilated over, and over, and over, rather than any facts that may come their way. It gives them more of what they want and it's exactly how they've been operating for years.

Have you failed to notice this?

Elizabeth

[Cronus Protagonist]

23. Seems to me that the Bush* admin would want the NO attacks story

It fits in with their "most Iraqis like us" meme. I think the story was true and it was sanitized later.

"As Americans, we believe that freedom is not America's gift to the world, freedom is the Almighty God's gift to every person who lives in the world." - GW Bush

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031124-6.html

Click Here To Find NO MICHAEL JACKSON Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

[Barrett808]

6. It's at least as likely that the Pentagon doesn't want Mogadishu

to figure too strongly in the minds of the American public.

[trapper914]

15. Bingo!

You nailed it, Barrett. Remember how the right wingers blamed Clinton for those soldiers?

[Ruby Romaine]

7. Your so-called "facts"

Came from an anonymous official.

"A military official here, speaking on the condition of anonymity"

[dvddrone]

19. Umm... wasn't there more?

I read it like this:

U.S. Retracts Report of Soldiers' Bodies Being Mutilated

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 24 — Military officials retracted a report today that two American soldiers had been slashed in their throats in an attack Sunday in the northern city of Mosul.

A military official here, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the two soldiers had died of gunshot wounds to the head and that their bodies had been pulled by Iraqis from their car and robbed of their personal belongings.

The military official said that contrary to some reports, the men had not been beaten by rocks or mutilated in any way.
___________

So - while one official spoke on condition of anonymity, the lead reads - "US military officials" - plural - retracting the prior 'mutilation' story.

Beyond that, my post went more to this administration's habitual twisting of the facts to suit their purposes. It doesn't matter if the mutilation did or did not happen, what matters to them and their Wholly Without Merit TV flunkies, is that they can say - over and over and over again - that it *did* happen.

Elizabeth

[Sapphocrat]

14. What do YOU bet...

...that far too many Americans will dismiss eyewitness claims because those eyewitnesses are "just" Iraqis?

Gee, too bad video got in the way of the "Mogadishu story," isn't it?

</bitter sarcasm off>

[dvddrone]

20. Yep

You've got it. Why would they give credence to what Iraqis who are there actually see, when they can't even count them as live human beings when we kill them? Iraqi casualties?? WHAT Iraqi casualties??

And no no no... I'm not *bitter* either. <sarcasm on, for sure>

Elizabeth

[Barrett808]

3. Prison riot story buried at the end of this one

Also today, American military police trying to quell a prison riot in Baghdad killed three Iraqis and wounded eight. The riot broke out at the Baghdad Correctional Center when a group of Iraqis began throwing rocks at the guards. A military official said that when the riot began to spread, American military police were given permission to use lethal force.

The riot lasted about 10 minutes, the official said.

[UpInArms]

10. I wonder if the US government

in control of the prison system, will notify the next of kin of the Iraqis or if there will be Iraqis trying to find their now dead relatives years from now - searching mass graves for some body with identification, letting them have closure about how their incarcerated relatived died in captivity

(shades of SH)

[Barrett808]

11. With the Red Cross gone, families may well never know

ICRC was the only connection most families had with incarcerated loved ones.

[leftchick]

21. omg...they threw fucking stones...

and were mowed down with M-16s in prison cells.... this is so sick....

[janx]

8. Did they ever make a statement on it to the effect that the

bodies were mutilated? If not, how can they retract it?

Those stories came from news reports, not the military.

[leftchick]

9. Here is a witness version:

Although I have read several versions, this one most closely matches the initial report on Sunday:

<snip>Witness account

A formal statement said the two men from the 101st Airborne Division which patrols Mosul were killed just past noon (0900 GMT) in the western part of the city centre.

Witnesses said they saw gunmen open fire with Kalashnikov assault rifles on a three-vehicle convoy, causing one to crash.

They said the other two vehicles had continued on their way, allowing the assailants to approach the stricken soldiers and remove their helmets and flak jackets. The attackers then slit the soldiers' throats, they said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1B38DEB6-9F20-404A-AB23-D46A0DCD568B.htm

[54anickel]

12. Some witness accounts say yes, other no to throats, but all that I've

seen do agree about the beating with bricks/rocks. I remember reading at least one article where an eye-witness said there was no slashing but the beating with blocks did happen.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=4&u=/ap/20031124/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

An Iraqi mob, most of them teenagers, dragged two bloodied soldiers from the car, threw them to the ground and pummeled their bodies with concrete blocks, according to witnesses, describing a burst of savagery reminiscent of that in Somalia a decade ago.

A few accounts said the soldiers' throats were cut — either by the attackers or by the mob. That didn't set well with everyone in Mosul.
<cut>

No matter what, it is very sad and there was much more to this than a couple of troops being shot. Their retraction is trying to disguise this ugly incident.

[Jacobin]

13. Soldiers "only" killed. Not mutilated.

That proves all is going according to plan.

/sarcasm

(I think they are just as dead, but that's just me)

[MasonJar]

17. There were pictures yeasterday

showing a soldier with a sliced throat. Why did the other two vehicles run off? They might have prevented the deaths.

[mw]

22. Read the article carefully:

The correction is that their throats were not cut. And that they were not "dragged thru the streets".

The "not mutilated" part could be press embellishment. Exactly what the DoD wanted here.

[dvddrone]

24. I'm not sure what you mean...

Sorry. I'm pretty sure I understood what the article said and I read the full story link, as well as a few other stories regarding this incident. I think the 'disconnect' comes in how we perceive whether it's 'good' or 'bad' for the Bush Junta. I thought that the DoD would WANT to be able to run around screeching about how our troops are being mutilated by the "evil" Iraqis - and get Wholly Without Merit TV to go on-air 24/7 screeching the same. Scaring the shit out of We the Peeps is pretty much their only Plan, no? Thanks.

Elizabeth

[54anickel]

25. No, mutilation would infuriate the public, more against the war than for

Remember the TV images of poor soldiers bodies dragged through the streets under Clinton's watch? Public uproar to bring them home NOW!
Would be worse for Shrub than the flag draped coffin at Dover.

[VolcanoJen]

26. Kick

:dem: