“The first ORHA [Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance] staff did not arrive in Baghdad [Iraq] until April 21 [2003], twelve days after Saddam Hussein’s statue had been pulled down. Much of the looting had already been done, and there was deep discomfort in Washington.” – Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, The Next Attack, Page […]
Category: quotes
4/21/2003
The concerns of the people on the War on Terror, “As 2003 wore on and the mission was obviously not so easily accomplished, a series of other concerns began to crop up. As early as April 21, Janette Mullenberg of Mauston, whose son was stationed at Camp Udairi, Kuwait, near Iraq was concerned that “the […]
4/21/2003
While embedded with troops in Iraq, reporter Judith Miller witnessed an Iraqi speaking to members of her unit and gesturing. Under terms of her embedding agreement, she wasn’t allowed to talk to or identify the man, and military censors were allowed to edit her material. However, “Her piece, which landed on the front page of […]
4/18/2003
“…bin Laden remained silent during the first three weeks of Operation Iraqi Freedom; only on April 18, 2003, as U.S. forces entered Baghdad, did he issue a taped message calling on Muslims to mount suicide attacks on Coalition forces.” – Jeffrey Record, Wanting War, Page 71 […]
4/17/2003
“Footnotes to the 9/11 Commission report indicate that by April 17, 2003–a month and a half after he was captured–[9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh] Mohammed had already started providing substantial information on Al Qaeda. Nonetheless, he was kept in isolation for years. …a few officers began to question the reliability of his coerced confessions. Some also […]
4/16/2003
“On April 16 [2003], [Central Command leader General Tommy] Franks cheerfully announced that most U.S. combat forces in Iraq would be withdrawn within sixty days so that they would not ‘wear out their welcome.’ Franks’s plan called for keeping some thirty thousand U.S. troops there as a peacetime occupation force. As a result, two army […]
4/16/2003
“On April 16, 2003, [Commander of Coalition Forces] GEN Tommy Franks issued orders to withdraw American warfighting units from Iraq within sixty days, and use incoming forces for only up to 120 days.” – Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Wiser in Battle, Page 168 […]
4/16/2003
On April 16, 2003, Commander of Coalition Forces General Tommy Franks distributed a ‘Freedom Message to the Iraqi People.’ It read: ” ‘Coalition Forces in Iraq have come as liberators, not as conquerors. We have come to eliminate an oppressive and aggressive regime that refused to comply with UN Security Council resolutions requiring the destruction […]
4/16/2003
Saddam’s liaison with the UN inspectors, “Dr. Amir Al Sa’adi…was the first high-level Iraqi who surrendered to the allied troops [on April 16, 2003], after he learned that he was among the officials being looked for. As he gave himself up, he said to German television…’There are no weapons of mass destruction and time will […]
4/16/2003
“A Defense Department spokesman said last night [June 7, 2004] that the March 2003 [Pentagon] memo [on interrogation procedures at Guantanamo] represented ‘a scholarly effort to define the perimeters of the law’ but added: ‘What is legal and what is put into practice is a different story.’ Pentagon officials said the group examined at least […]