US military compound in Bagdad hit with 3 mortar misseles ...Pentagon

[ElsewheresDaughter]

orders comlpete Press Blackout....MSNBC

[Beetwasher]

1. Press Blackout

Please explain. MSNBC reported that the Pentagon ordered a complete press blackout of this situation or in general?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

7. Keep an eye on Al Jazeera, they're not usually subject to blackouts

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage

[DuctapeFatwa]

15. They've been bombed twice, I don't think they'll defy a cover ban

They've also had at least one killed, and one of their star reporters seized and disappeared.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

19. Nasty. I thought at least they'd be good. Nasty indeed.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

30. bush* on now calling these attacks in Iraq "TERRORIST ATTACKS"

saying "it is work of terrorists"...wtf?...i thought this was a war?

[DuctapeFatwa]

76. The regime seized their cameraman at the scene of today's splosions

there's a link in the LBN about it.

Guess they did try to defy a cover ban.

[goforit]

77. We've had a press block out for 3 years............what else is new!!!

?

[grytpype]

2. Mortars are not missles.

M2 mortar:



Missile:

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. i heard they (the media)don't know if it was "rockets or mortars" due to

Pentagons order of "complete press blackout" whatever it is it has gotta be BAD!

[tridim]

3. Oh crap

I hope "press blackout" doesn't equal "massive casualties". I fear it does though.

[Divernan]

6. Or it could mean very high level persons injured/killed.

Guess Baghdad has seen the last of visiting congressional delegations or high level administration officials.

[Spazito]

4. Geez!

This says to me that the attack today was very bad! So, what does ordering a complete Press Blackout mean? Does that mean any reporter can be charged with something if they report?

[janx]

5. What is a complete press blackout?

Where did this come from?

[Dhalgren]

11. I just checked the MSNBC website

and I couldn't find anything about a "press blackout"!!? Where did this come from?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

24. female anchor MSNBC said "Pentagon has ordered complete press blackout"

and now she is gone and Nacham(ms) has taken her place and is on talking about nonsense ...reagan mini series

[janx]

28. I have NO idea.

I checked the website too and found nothing.

It's true that reporters were not allowed inside the compound. Also, news is being filtered through the Pentagon--that's where the news came from that several were injured:

"THE U.S.-LED coalition said in a statement that “two projectiles were launched” in central Baghdad and that “there is no damage and no casualties at headquarters.”
But at the Pentagon, spokesman Jim Cassella said “three persons were wounded from the coalition. One was treated on the scene and the other two were taken to the 28th Combat Support Hospital.”
He said it was not known whether the wounded were military or civilian.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CA01

[ElsewheresDaughter]

14. it came from MSNBC...and now the whores comply...are talking about

Reagon mini series :puke:

[peterh]

9. Actually folks…what ya heard…

Was just a little demolition in preparation for a new state-of-the-art soccer field….really..everything is fine and on the up-and-up. We tentatively have our first match scheduled in a couple of weeks with a rag-tag group called Team-Resistance…we’re looking forward to what should be an explosive match…ok…move along…

:eyes:

[Screaming Lord Byron]

10. Now they'll want the press to stop reporting on anything in Iraq

This is going too far, fast. Bring 'em on, Shrub.

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. So now they are announcing a press blackout?

Up until this announcement many of us speculated that the Pentagon and Centcom were doing this sort of thing but we had no proof. Just yesterday there was a debate on the thread about yesterday's attack in Baghdad and whether or not there was a news blackout. Some people were making all kinds of excuses for team Bu$h, now we know the conspiracy theorists were right again.



edit: Added link to yesterday's discussion

104. Centcom must have lifted the blackout

[ewagner]

13. Blacked out because

if the news people start talking about exactly where the mortor rounds hit the information could be used to sharpen the aim of the mortorman next time.......

make sense?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

18. nothing has made "sense" since the 2000 selection

[ewagner]

23. No argument there.n/t

[DuctapeFatwa]

22. since the mortarman is more familiar with it than the Crusaders

I would imagine that the cover ban has been put in place out of an overcautious desire to avoid eroding support for the Crusade.

[ewagner]

25. Could be that also.......

but military types are a bit sensitive to giving out exact locations of mortor hits.....

Just MHO

[Sagan]

16. Press blackout? Excuse me????

Has this happened before? Why would they do this? Is it a new policy for whenever something bad happens?

[TeeYiYi]

17. Four US soldiers wounded . . .

. . . according to Al Jazeera.

TYY

[peterh]

21. 4 Injured In Attack On US Headquarters In Baghdad

DJ UPDATE: 4 Injured In Attack On US Headquarters In Baghdad



(Updates with four wounded)
BAGHDAD (AP)--Smoke rose Tuesday over the highly guarded headquarters area of
the U.S.-led occupation after guerrillas fired mortars into the city center for
a second straight night, injuring four people. Spain, a close U.S. ally,
withdrew much of its diplomats because of escalating violence.
Thunderous explosions about 7:45 p.m. local time rocked the area around the
four-kilometer square "green zone," which includes coalition headquarters, the
military press center and other key facilities.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Lt. Col. Jim Cassella said four people had been
injured in the attacks. He said it wasn't immediately clear whether the victims
were military or civilian personnel or whether they were U.S. citizens.
Cassella said there appeared to have been three explosions, possibly from
mortars or rockets. Three of the injured were taken to a hospital and one was
treated at the scene, Cassella said.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

26. no spain announced withdrawl of personal yesterday..this iccident just

happened an hour ago

[peterh]

32. yes...and 4 are reported injured...

the Spain item is just a journalistic recap/tie-in….whatever ya want to call it…but the news item relates to today’s action.

[ConcernedCanuk]

20. Mortar attack on US Baghdad HQ - Link - Ananova

..Mortar attack on US Baghdad HQ

Two mortars have exploded inside a US military compound in central Baghdad.

The blasts occurred along with two others along the Tigris river as smoke could be seen rising close to the US Baghdad HQ.

Iraqi police confirm two of the rounds exploded in the 'green zone', a one mile square area along the western bank of the Tigris where the coalition headquarters is located.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_835443.html

[ConcernedCanuk]

29. Three hurt in Baghdad blasts - another LINK

. . - how come the other side of the globe gets this stuff before we do?

(that's a rhetorical question)

1 hour ago -

Three members of the American-led coalition have been hurt in two explosions near a military compound in the Iraqi capital.

A Pentagon spokesman said two of the injured have been taken to hospital while the third was treated at the scene. It is not known if the victims are civilian workers or soldiers.

Earlier reports said at least three mortars or missiles had been fired at the compound in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces near the al-Jamhuriya bridge over the Tigris.

[hang a left]

31. I call bullshit!!! Why the blackout? I bet there is a ton of casualties.

I also heard the on the news that they didn't know if it was mortars, missles, or rockets.

[0007]

70. Strange!!

Another poster held a particular position that the reason for the blackout was because the US didn't want to tip their position.

It would seem to me that the Iraqis or whoever know already where the target is -

[ElsewheresDaughter]

33. Bremer?.."Pentagon orders complete press balckout" could it be Bremer

was hit???? he was using one of the palaces for his headquaters

[Mz Pip]

38. Seems s bit

over the top to have a new blackout when there were just a couple of people injured. This doesn't make sense.

SOmething else has to be happening to warrent a new blackout.

MzPip
:dem:

[rdub]

27. 17th in Press Freedom...

On the upside, I guess that means only 16 countries do it better than US.

-Deckard

[Spazito]

34. Actually the 17th was from a previous report..I believe the US is now

at 31.

[rdub]

41. well that explains the blackout ;)

Ah, "managing expectations"... I was holding the ruler too high, I guess ;)

Anyhow, looks like they are talking about it on the news now.

-Deckard

[jwcomer]

52. 31 was for domestic reporting

31 was for domestic reporting. The US reporting on Iraq was 135.
see here.

[kayell]

55. And dropping fast

We're rapidly approaching the old Soviet standard of press freedom.

[Spazito]

35. dupe ( don't know what happened there!)

[Spazito]

36. a second dupe ( I only hit post once, honest!)

*

[ElsewheresDaughter]

37. is anyone listing to the bullshit bush is sprewing in CA about Iraq war???

i gotta get a link to a rerun of this CNN press footage at fire damaged homes...the man is insane!!!

[hang a left]

40. yes just listening in the backround. He is such an asshole.

Asked about the Chinook disaster. Says he is always sorry about the loss of life. (Could he act just a little more sincere) Then he says, I shit you not, "they died for a cause greater than themselves"

I friggen hate that guy!

[tom_paine]

42. Yes Bushevik Profits and Imperial Family Hegemony

[qanda]

44. Okay, I'll begin the outrage

They died for a cause greater than themselves? I'm sure there are many parents who will vehemently disagree with that statement. Why is Bush* so happy and courageous about war now? When it was his turn to serve he sent somebody else in his place. I tell you, if we don't vote this man out of office, I am going to lose my mind.

[0007]

71. junior gets a big big woody ......

cuz he knows his buds, the Carlyle boys and the Halliburton girls are making a fucking ton of money off our dying American boys & girls. junior gets his nuts out of hock hearing about blood and death and being able to dictate the wishes of the Carlyle thugs and Dick Cheney.

That is why junior is so happy and courageous about war!!!!!

[Judi Lynn]

48. I heard that, too.

It targets him as a complete fraud. Who but a hardened criminal could stand to have so many people watching him lie like this?

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time....................(*sputter*) you can't get fooled again."

(snip)
"There's an old...saying in Tennessee...I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee that says Fool me once...(3 second pause)... Shame on...(4 second pause)...Shame on you....(6 second pause)...Fool me...Can't get fooled again." --George W. Bush to Nashville, Tennessee audience, Sept. 17, 2002, MSNBC-TV --Politex, Sept. 17, 2002, 10 PM(snip)
http://www.bushwatch.com/english.htm

[kayell]

58. "they died for a cause greater than themselves"

AAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[amish_enforcer]

64. Nicely put!

If people can't see thru his shite come next election, time to foot-vote

[kayell]

68. The more articulate response from Ted Rall

[peterh]

45. I got a two line recap….

Bush: U.S. Will Continue To Hunt Terrorists In Iraq
Bush Vows U.S. Will Track Down Saddam Hussein

Bla bla yada yada bla bla….sameo sameo…

:eyes:

[ConcernedCanuk]

39. These guys are going after HQ and compounds !

. . they ain't just tryna pick 'em off in the streets !

. . Them boys of urs over there are in deep doo-doo

. . all because of voting machine unreliability

and ya, well, ur Cowboy and his Gang of thugs are EVIL

Just My Canadian Opinion

[northernsoul]

51. how long til we get a rerun of Beirut '83?

Didn't we learn anything about multi-factional urban combat in the Middle East from that effing disaster?

[Hand]

62. That could be next...

considering we just got the rerun of Pleiku 1965 (double-digit killed in a single attack for the first time). Ohhhhhh, man... Bring those people home!!!!!!

[Gloria]

74. People in Beirut are already saying the US

didn't learn the lesson from '83 and it's replaying in Iraq. They are saying that it's the same bunch--Rummy and Perle, in particular, who are making another mess.

Article in the Toronto Star, in the current World Media Watch....URL in sig or at Buzzflash.com

[omshanti]

43. This is scary!! Must be BAAAD if they ordered a blackout.

Also, can they do that? Order a blackout and no press coverage at all? I thought we had a "free" press?
What does a "complete Press Blackout" entail?

It must be really, really horrible if they have to muzzle the press. Maybe I'm being alarmist?

[janx]

46. From what I've observed of this so far,

it looks as if the press is being handled by the Pentagon only. The coalition press people aren't saying anything (except to lie at the outset and say that nobody was hurt).

[suegeo]

47. The coalition press?

Can I ask a stupid question? (Well yes, I can...several actually!)

What members of the press are still left over there? What publications do they report for?

I thought the whore reporters that were in bed with the military (aka embedded reporters) went home around the time that our AWOL resident (and his package!) pranced around the Lincoln...

Since the American media are all corporate whores, and therefore worse than useless, I would most like to know of foreign reporters that might even be in a position to report on this...WHo is the most trustworthy of the lot that's still left over there?

[janx]

49. Sorry, I wasn't clear. Our military has people who serve

essentially in public relations and who feed normal journalists the news of the war. These people have been very tight-lipped of late (although any press in Iraq has always been controlled through the "embed" process and other things).

Currently, it looks as if the Pentagon is handling all news of this most recent attack, and the military PR people aren't saying anything at all. The press has to get its information from the Pentagon or from witnesses on the street in Iraq--they can't get it from the military. I could be wrong, but it looks as if that's what is happening.

[grasswire]

50. UPI had an embed on a medivac chopper Sunday

A UPI reporter filed a stunning report from a medivac chopper that landed at the Chinook site.

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031102-103706-1836r

[TeeYiYi]

54. Thanks for the link grasswire . . .

. . . quite a telling story.

TYY

[BrotherBuzz]

69. Wow ... quite a telling story.

If you read between the lines, a few glaring questions come to mind...

I'm half-asleep in the back of the Blackhawk after riding on about a dozen such missions over the previous 36 hours. It's about 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, and I'd returned from the last mission just over six hours ago.

Man, that's one every three hours! Just how many helicopters do we have in Iraq? Just how many casualties are there every day? I did a little math based on the belief that we have more than one helicopter in Iraq, and can now understand why the boys in the Pentagon aren't releasing the true casualties numbers. This is a real story the merits reporting!

[janx]

53. The most interesting coverage I've ever seen has been from Harper's

Magazine. They don't have a lot of it, but some months ago I read two long essays by two different "embedded" reporters, one of whom was "embedded" with Chalabi for awhile!

Pick up a copy sometime.

[SoCalDem]

56. That is where my friend Ray is staying..

He is the one who is coordinatiing the Iraqi family care packages.. I sent an e-mail to him..I hope he is not one of the ones who was hurt :(
Maybe he will have more details for me when he reads his e-mail and responds..

[SoCalDem]

57. delete please...must have hit enter twice

:(

[54anickel]

59. from aljazeer - not much but seems like several hits

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DA4C53D1-CBDE-4D94-AC45-52F7D7DD1836.htm

“A fourth rocket was launched at the US base in al-Mahdiya quarter in al-Dura district," said Aljazeera's Biba Wild Mahadi. "Between 20 to 50 US vehicles were deployed to the scene of the explosion."

[Emboldened Chimp]

60. 20-50 vehicles?

Something big DID happen. You don't send that many vehicles to the scene for four injured.

[spinbaby]

63. Between 20 to 50 US vehicles?

I wonder when they're going to learn the classic one-two punch: lob a bomb, wait for lots of help to arrive, lob a bigger bomb.

[amish_enforcer]

65. thinking the same thing......but we have it under control...

....so no worries, right??

[leftchick]

73. no kidding...don't these people know history?

oh, forget it...

[nolabels]

61. Maybe this is old news for you folks, I don't know, anywho

Sometimes I go to this site when I am trying to find out things

http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=1533

Bush’s News War

Fed up with the gloom-and-doom coverage of the conflict, the White House is taking aim at the press
by Richard Wolffe and Rod Nordland, Newsweek
October 27th, 2003


Oct. 27 issue — It started out as a little crowd control in Baghdad. But as U.S. troops entered the streets to restore order earlier this month, the protest turned ugly.

SOMEONE THREW A homemade grenade at the Americans, wounding 13 servicemen. According to the Oct. 8 Daily Threat Assessment—the Coalition’s internal casualty report, which was shown to NEWSWEEK—eight soldiers were wounded seriously enough to be evacuated to military hospitals. Yet at a press conference the next day, there was no mention of the attack. Pushed by reporters, U.S. officials would only say the incident was under investigation. It was as if the ambush, and the casualties, had never happened.

In Baghdad, official control over the news is getting tighter. Journalists used to walk freely into the city’s hospitals and the morgue to keep count of the day’s dead and wounded. Now the hospitals have been declared off-limits and morgue officials turn away reporters who aren’t accompanied by a Coalition escort. Iraqi police refer reporters’ questions to American forces; the Americans refer them back to the Iraqis.

Reporters and government officials have always squabbled over access; but the news coverage of the messy, ongoing conflict in Iraq has worsened the already tense relationship between the press and the administration. American officials accuse reporters of indulging in a morbid obsession with death and destruction, and ignoring how Iraq has improved since Saddam Hussein was toppled. Reporters grumble that the secretive White House and Pentagon hold back just how grim and chaotic the situation really is.

After a summer of sliding polls and an autumn of tough questions in Congress, the White House is hoping to boost public support by convincing Americans that the cynical national press is getting the story wrong. Last week President George W. Bush himself complained about the national media’s fixation on bad news, and made a show of going around them by granting interviews with local TV reporters. “I’m mindful of the filter through which some news travels,” he told one interviewer, “and sometimes you just have to go over the heads of the filter and speak directly to the people.” Of course, Bush isn’t the first president to try sidestepping the national press in favor of local reporters, who tend to be gentler questioners than the reporters who cover him every day. Bill Clinton did it when he thought the White House press corps was treating him harshly. So did the first President Bush
(snip)

[amish_enforcer]

66. MSNBC online link

http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CA01

[Merlin]

67. Mortars have a range of only a few hundred meters.

So these guys must have been fairly close.

I can think of absolutely no reason whatsoever for a press blackout. The notion that the press might give the mortar launchers more info than they now have is preposterous.

[Barrett808]

72. "The range on those mortars is several miles"

NBC’s Bob Arnot, reporting from Baghdad, said Tuesday’s explosions sounded much like Monday night’s, when large mortar the size of tank shells were fired. The range on those mortars is several miles, Arnot reported, and U.S. officials at the compound had said they expected Iraqi insurgents to improve their firing accuracy over time.

fwiw

[LittleApple81]

75. kick, n/t