Tanks are rolling up to the Najaf shrine. Reporters are being shot at...

[Junkdrawer]

Here's a link to the LBN thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=753325&mesg_id=753325

Not looking good folks... :scared:

[Fovea]

1. So much for an Iraqi operation.

So much for reporters being embedded, unless you count that .223 round.

[leftchick]

2. Sadly the US can kill every reporter they see ....

but it still won't stop the Iraqis from fighting to get their country back. This is going to be terrible....

:(

[Junkdrawer]

4. My guess is that the US troops will do the dirty deed and CLAIM Iraqis...

did the invasion.

[KoKo]

6. Probably the truth of it. Heard on MSNBC today, Reporters Asked to Leave

Najaf...some folks over in LBN Forum were looking for a source. It's just "hearsay from me." Too tired to do a search for it...sorry.

[KoKo]

8. Oh Heck....here's an ABC link to the story:

Last Update: Monday, August 16, 2004. 3:00am (AEST)
Journalists ordered to leave Najaf as fighting continues

Journalists have been kicked out of Najaf as clashes flared in the Iraqi city, prompting speculation that a major United States-led assault on Shiite fighters was imminent.

(snip)

"A major assault by forces will be launched quickly to bring the Najaf fight to an end," Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said.

"This matter has to be brought to conclusion as fast as possible and we want to bring the situation to normalcy soon."

Police ordered Iraqi and foreign journalists out of Najaf.

"From now on this city is closed," a senior police officer told reporters.

Police chief General Ghaleb al-Jazairi said he was under orders from the Interior Minister that all journalists, local and foreign, leave within hours.

Mohammad Kazem, an Iraqi correspondent for Iranian television, was detained at gunpoint by police in the middle of a live broadcast from a rooftop.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200408/s1177041.htm

[Junkdrawer]

9. The Telegraph story also talks about being *ahem* asked to leave...

...

"We know you are neutral journalists despite the fact you did not report the bad actions by Sadr's people when they beheaded and burned innocent people and the Iraqi police," he said.

For good measure, Mr Jazeera also threatened to arrest Iraqi drivers and translators working for the press corps if we did not comply. The 30-odd journalists staying at the Sea Hotel decided to stay in Najaf.

Shortly after the deadline expired, the first bullets struck the building. But the sniper was almost certainly an Iraqi policeman, given that the Mahdi army fighters were more than two miles away.

Then armed police raided the hotel and tried to arrest the journalists, before imposing a new two-hour deadline to leave the city.

A deputation of journalists was denied an audience with Najaf's governor, Adnan al-Zurufi. The policeman outside his office was brusque. "If you do not leave by the deadline we will shoot you," he said.

...


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/16/wirq216.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/16/ixnewstop.html

[DrWeird]

3. Nazis are pretending nothing is going on...

Keep on moving, folks. Nothing to see here.

[Bluebear]

5. The powder keg is about to erupt full blast

And media is advised to "leave", news blackout in Iraq so no one can see what's happening.

[G_j]

7. more violence and death

it would seem Iraq is decending deeper into hell

thank you America

[G_j]

10. Shia Backlash Wrecks U.S. Strategy

Shia Backlash Wrecks U.S. Strategy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/081604A.shtml

[nostamj]

11. the massacre will not be televised....

something they don't want nobody to see is going down.

TYPICAL for the bushies...

[Junkdrawer]

13. Yeah, they'll tell us ALL about it at the Baghdad Follies...

and no pesky images to explain away.

[BillZBubb]

12. More Iraqi "freedom" in action.

If they damage the shrine and no one is there to report it, does that mean it didn't happen?