“On March 19, 2003, they [Major Mark ‘Fuji’ Hoehn and Colonel Dave ‘Tooms’ Toomey] were selected to carry out an order issued directly from the Pentagon–a top-secret assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein, using GPS-guided bunker-busters. Though they did not know it, their mission was to be the opening strike of Operation Iraqi Freedom.” – Eugene […]
Category: quotes
3/19/2003
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary:” “290. Shortly before midnight on 19 March, the US informed Sir David Manning that there was to be a change to the plan and US airstrikes would be launched at 0300 GMT on 20 March.” – Commissioned by the Prime Minister The Right Honourable […]
3/18/2003
On March 18, 2003, “a letter went out from [President] Bush to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert [R-IL] and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Ted Stevens [R-AK] declaring that having determined that further diplomacy would not ‘adequately protect the national security of the United States,’ he was acting to take…’the necessary actions against […]
3/18/2003
“…on March 18, 2003, only a few days before the U.S. invasion of Iraq was to begin, the Iraqi government suddenly switched off all telephone service across Iraq, and the use of satellite and mobile phones was specifically banned by the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, even by foreign reporters based in Baghdad. This closed […]
3/18/2003
In a speech to the House of Commons on March 18, 2003, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said the possibility of terrorist groups ” ‘in possession of weapons of mass destruction or even of a so-called dirty radiological bomb–is now, in my judgment, a real and present danger to Britain and its national security. Let […]
3/18/2003
On March 18, 2003, Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi television. “With a pistol holstered at his right hip, he railed at the ‘American, English and Zionist invading aggressors,’ and warned that they faced defeat. …he denounced Bush’s ultimatum [that Saddam and his sons leave the country] as ‘debased and baseless,’ and said it represented ‘a […]
3/18/2003
“On March 18 [2003], the day after [President] Bush delivered his ultimatum [that Saddam and his sons had 48 hours to leave Iraq], [U.K. Prime Minister] Tony Blair staved off opposition from members of his own Labour Party and at last won the support of the House of Commons to disarm Iraq by ‘all means […]
3/18/2003
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary:” “[UK] Parliamentary debate and vote on [the use of military action in] Iraq.” – Commissioned by the Prime Minister The Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP, “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry: Executive Summary,” IraqInquiry.org.uk, March 18, 2003 […]
3/18/2003
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary”: “285. The French President’s office issued a statement early 18 March stating that the US ultimatum was a unilateral decision going against the will of the international community who wanted to pursue Iraqi disarmament in accordance with resolution 1441. It stated: ‘… only the […]
3/18/2003
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary”: “286. On the evening of 18 March, the House of Commons passed by 412 votes to 149 a motion supporting ‘the decision of Her Majesty’s Government that the United Kingdom should use all means necessary to ensure the disarmament of Iraq’s weapons of mass […]