Wounded soldiers describe 'reckles' Fallujah rebels
Mon Nov 15 2004 09:30:56 ET

LANDSTUHL, Germany - Wounded US soldiers being treated at the military hospital here on Monday gave a graphic account of the battle for the rebel Iraqi stronghold of Fallujah.

US-led forces said on Monday they had taken almost complete control of the city after a week-long battle but were still hunting for pockets of diehard rebels.

The handful of Marines and soldiers who met the press were flown to Landstuhl in southwest Germany, which is the largest US military medical facility outside the United States, last week.

They described the rebel fighters as young, disorganised and often reckless but well-armed.

"You recognise them easily. They wear masks, they carry weapons, they move in small squads," said 22-year-old soldier Kris Clinkscales, who suffered an arm injury from an exploding shell.

"Civilians are usually wearing traditional gowns, they lift their hands when they see you."

He said he was sure he had not shot at civilians because they were easy to identify. "There were bodies on the street, but only insurgents," he said.

Clinkscales is among the 275 wounded on the US side according to figures given by commanders in Baghdad, although a spokeswoman for the hospital said that up to Monday it had treated 419 injured servicemen, mostly from the Fallujah offensive, and that 46 more were due to arrive later that day.

Thirty eight US soldiers have been killed in the assault.

Clinkscales, who arrived at the hospital on Saturday, described the rebel fighters' approach as "reckless", "especially the young ones, aged 18 to 20. They were quite disorganised."

Travis Schafer, a 20-year-old Marine, who injured a hand when a shell exploded, said he was sure the rebels were prepared to sacrifice everything.

"These guys are ready to fight to the death," he told the press conference. "I was surprised by the weapons they had," he added, describing seeing "loads of RPGs (rocket-propelled grenade launchers) and machine guns".

And Schafer said the battle had been conducted from street to street.

"This is a rooftop to rooftop kind of fight. You see the snipers jumping from one roof to another."

Ryan Chapman, a 22-year-old Marine, was hit above the left eye by a sniper's bullet, but escaped with a fractured skull.

"People keep on telling me that I'm lucky," he said. "I don't mind being lucky."

Despite his brush with death, Chapman was keen to return to fight in Iraq.

"I want to go back. It kills me when I see the news, when I think of all my buddies back there."

More than 1,200 rebels have been killed in the battle, the US military said on Monday.

Despite his brush with death, Chapman was keen to return to fight in Iraq.

"I want to go back. It kills me when I see the news, when I think of all my buddies back there."

Probe: Oil funds paid for bombers

NEW YORK -- Saddam Hussein diverted money from the U.N. oil-for-food program to pay millions of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out attacks on Israel, say congressional investigators who uncovered evidence of the money trail.

The former Iraqi president tapped secret bank accounts in Jordan -- where he collected bribes from foreign companies and individuals doing illicit business under the humanitarian program -- to reward the families up to $25,000 each, investigators told The Associated Press.

Documents prepared for a hearing today by the House International Relations Committee outline the new findings.

Today's hearing, however, will focus on a French bank that handled most of the money for the program. An audit by a U.S. regulatory agency of a small sample of transactions out of the $60 billion U.N. escrow account managed by BNP-Paribas has raised serious questions concerning the bank's compliance with American money-laundering laws, investigators said.
"There are indications that the bank may have been noncompliant in administering the oil-for-food program,"

committee chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said. "If true, these possible banking lapses may have facilitated Saddam Hussein's manipulation and corruption of the program."

While acknowledging that U.S. regulators have raised routine issues with BNP on compliance with banking laws, a lawyer for BNP said Hyde's statement was unfair.

"No departure from any standard caused or contributed in any way to the abuse at the oil-for-food program," the bank's lead counsel, Robert S. Bennett, said. "There are simply no connections."

The humanitarian program let Iraq trade oil for food, medicine and other items. But investigators say Saddam made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue under the program.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

There's no such thing as an arab nation or anything close 11b...most arab countries hate each other's guts, and notably they hated Saddam's. And let's not overgeneralize things. There's no reason to go killing off leaders over there, since neither Europe nor the US is at immedeate threat by any of the countries in the Middle East. If anything it will give more reason for loonies to get it in their head that the West is pure evil.

I don't believe killing off leaders won't achieve much in the long run. In a group of 15 ppl it might, in a group of thousands I doubt it makes much of a difference cos there's always someone else to take over. What it can do is dissolve a structured dictatorship like Saddam's (as opposed to a radical splinter group of some sort), but in the end the chaos resulting from such a dissolvement will not help us either.

Dictators like Saddam have only one objective: secure their position as sole leader. They're not gonna attack the US, Europe or Israel cos they'll get wasted in no time, so it's illogical to think they've got direct terrorist plans against the west...if you're cosily bathing in wealth and power in your 3rd world-state you're not gonna risk all that for setting up terrorist attacks to have a laugh over the West getting bombed. The war in Iraq sucks...with Saddam in power the US weren't anywhere near threatened, but now a whole new load of monkeys aro
und there have reasons (in their eyes) to blow stuff up. Sigh.

Btw there's a difference (for Saddam directly) in supporting bombings in the west and bombings in israel.