NYT,pg1,lead: US: Grip On Iraqi Militia in Najaf Tight (headline misleads)

[DeepModem Mom]

The Times disputes its headline by the fourth paragraph. Do they think Karl doesn't read beyond the headline?


INSURGENCY
U.S. Says Its Grip on Iraqi Militia in Najaf Is Tight
By ALEX BERENSON and JOHN F. BURNS

Published: August 10, 2004


NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 9 - American forces besieging militiamen of a rebel cleric in a shrine and cemetery sacred to Shiite Muslims tightened their cordon on Monday, United States military officials in Baghdad said, and they warned the rebels that they could not receive any outside support. But the warnings drew an immediate riposte from the cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, who emerged from days of silence to reject demands for the militiamen to surrender.

"I will defend Najaf until the last drop of my blood," Mr. Sadr said at a news conference in the Imam Ali shrine, which has served as a stronghold for his Mahdi Army since his uprising in the spring against the foreign occupation of Iraq.

The repercussions of the latest fighting, which began in Najaf last week and quickly spread to other centers of support for Mr. Sadr, intensified when officials of the state-owned oil industry said Iraq's largest oil fields, in the southern region around Basra, had stopped pumping oil on Monday after Mr. Sadr's militiamen had threatened to attack oil fields, refineries and pipelines. About 1.8 million barrels a day, 90 percent of Iraq's oil exports, are shipped from terminals in and near Basra.

While senior American military officials in Baghdad appeared confident that they had Mr. Sadr's forces in Najaf contained, officers and soldiers on the front line painted a different picture. They said that rebels move freely between the cemetery and Najaf's old city, and that American forces do not fully control the cemetery, which is three miles long and two miles wide....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/10/international/middleeast/10iraq.html

[Jazzgirl]

1. I noticed the misleading headline too.

I remember when I first hit the page I thought that I was just about fed up with the NYT's support of the * regime. I went ahead and read the article and realized they weren't just following orders. It is real obvious with the removal of Aljazeera that Allawi and the US military intend to really go after al Sadr and they don't want too many eyes around to watch the carnage.

[Aidoneus]

2. the Grip on Reality, however, is another story altogether..

I don't see how but under the most total delusion--habitual to the propagandist liars at the Times and elsewhere, mind you--it could be seen that Sayyid Muqtada(HA)'s muqawamma(AJ) are "contained". That hundreds of people have been massacred is no sign of success, except to the most vile, sheltered, and deluded; may this trinity be violently awoken from their false dreams.

[Aidoneus]

8. hm..

there is a trouble in changing a half-portion of a phrase, without correcting what comes immediately after it. I doubt the error would be noticed, but it just occured to me.. oh well, too late to correct.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. 2 instances of American officers on the ground

saying their commanders are lying:
"While senior American military officials in Baghdad appeared confident that they had Mr. Sadr's forces in Najaf contained, officers and soldiers on the front line painted a different picture. They said that rebels move freely between the cemetery and Najaf's old city, and that American forces do not fully control the cemetery, which is three miles long and two miles wide."
and
"But some American military officers have said that this presentation of the situation was a convenient fiction, propagated by the Allawi government and the American command to allow their forces to hunt down as many of Mr. Sadr's fighters as possible while exempting Mr. Sadr from any deliberate attack."

That's not a good situation. If the troops don't trust their generals to be truthful, there will be screw ups, and many more innocent civilians, and soldiersd, will get killed.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Good catch, mv -- Deliberate misrepresentation by their superiors...

must be both demoralizing and frightening to soldiers and their officers.

[Dhalgren]

5. Right!

When soldiers on the ground start seeing that their chain of command has a different agenda than the troops under fire, it's never a good thing. The soldiers have got to be able to trust their commanders or the jig is up, as they say.

[Halliburton]

6. Express your outrage...

[e-mail]

[Ripley]

7. Another Fallujah coming?

snip>>

Massive Attack Feared, US Tells Najaf Residents To Leave

US troops are said to be ready to attack fighters holed up inside Imam Ali Shrine

NAJAF, Iraq, August 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In an unprecedented move seen as a prelude to a feared massive attack on some of the holiest religious places in Iraq, US forces called Tuesday, August10 , on Najaf residents to evacuate their homes.

The call came as fighting between US-led troops and Mehdi Army fighters, loyalists of Iraqi firebrand Shiite scholar Moqtada Al-Sadr, raged for the seventh day, bringing about a halt in output from southern Iraqi oilfields and sending world oil prices soaring.

snip>>

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-08/10/article03.shtml