Fox News reports that in Baghdad small bands of youths tore down portraits of Saddam and chanted,"Bush! Bush! Thank you!". Excerpt: "Emboldened by the sight of U.S. troops taking control of the capital, they dared not only to loot but also to rejoice over Saddam's fall, to vandalize his image and to call him a criminal -- offenses that just days or weeks ago could have brought arrest, imprisonment, torture, even death at the hands of the secret police. They danced in the streets, waving rifles, palm fronds and flags, thrusting their arms in the air and flashing the V-for-victory sign. ... On a Baghdad street, a white-haired man held up a poster of Saddam and beat it with his shoe. A younger man spat on the portrait, and several others launched kicks at the face of the Iraqi president."
Meanwhile, completely blinded by ideological hatred, the Communistic "anti-war" group International ANSWER has announced a March on Washington. Excerpt: "Baghdad has been bombed relentlessly, terrorizing the occupants of that city and of the entire country. ... This horrific unprovoked attack on Iraq must be understood as one of the extreme terrorist acts of modern times. ... The Bush Administration is hell bent on world domination. The war on Iraq was meant to signal that the U.S. use of raw military power will be the means to create a new era of Empire."
Apr 9, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Baghdad--With help from a U.S. M88 tank recovery vehicle, citizens of Baghdad this morning ripped down a 20-foot high statue of Saddam Hussein that stood in the heart of the city.
The jubilant crowds threw various objects at the broken symbol and beat it with their shoes as a show of distain for the fallen tyrant. After decapitating the statue, some citizens rode atop the head as fellow Iraqis dragged it through the city streets in celebration.
So far, no demonstrators have gathered in San Francisco to celebrate the liberation of the oppressed Iraqi people for whom they cared so deeply just weeks ago.
Apr 9, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
A top US military officer said hundreds of so-called Islamic fighters, including many non-Iraqis, were putting up a stronger fight for Baghdad than Iraq's Republican Guard or regular army. "They stand, they fight, sometimes they run when we engage them," said Brigadier-General John Kelly. "But often they run into our machine-guns and we shoot them down like the morons they are." General Kelly, assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division, told The Age that US intelligence indicated there might be anywhere between 500 and 5000 of the fighters, whom he described as terrorists. "They seem to have come to Iraq for their summer vacation to kill American, British and Australian soldiers," he said. "They appear willing to die. We are trying our best to help them out in that endeavour." [April 9, 2003, The Age]
Apr 8, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
[Cuban] human rights activists confirmed that at least 75 members of the opposition had been prosecuted on state security charges in summary trials lasting no more than one day each. The known sentences for about half of them ranged from 15 to 27 years..."We are witnessing the harshest political trials of the past decade," said [veteran activist Elizardo] Sanchez, among the few leading government opponents not arrested last month. Some of the longest sentences were reserved for independent journalists, including 27 years for reporter and photographer Omar Rodriguez Saludes; and 20 years each for poet and writer Raul Rivero, magazine editor Ricardo Gonzalez, and economics writer Oscar Espinosa Chepe. The Cuban government accused them--along with pro-democracy activists, opposition party leaders and other dissidents--of collaborating with U.S. diplomats to undermine the socialist state. [Associated Press, 4/8/03]
Notably absent from the trials: Castro's "useful idiots" at CNN. (Hat Tip: Paul Blair)
