[Rhodes22-list] Ed Kroposki Is This True?

Bill Effros bill at effros.com
Mon Sep 19 10:19:53 EDT 2005


Ed, this is not a set-up.  This literally came in just as I sent my 
reply to you.  I had not seen it before.  I have attached everything 
except the names of the other people who received it.

Bill Effros

Note: forwarded message attached.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject:
Not Front Page in NYTimes
From:
Paulann Sheets <phsheets at comcast.net>
Date:
Mon, 19 Sep 2005 08:51:17 -0400



Posted on BuzzFlash  today by the noted Mid East scholar Juan Cole (U. of
Michigan) 

 
-- An observer in Iraq writes to me:

"The situation has deteriorated in Baghdad dramatically today. Five
neighborhoods (hay) in Baghdad are controlled by insurgents, and they are
Amiraya, Ghazilya, Shurta, Yarmouk and Doura. It is very bad. My guys there
report that cars have come into these neighborhoods and blocked off the
streets. Masked gunmen with AKs and other weapons are roaming these areas,
announcing that people should stay home. One of my drivers in Amiraya
reports that his neighborhood is shut down totally, and even those who need
food or provisions are warned not to go out.
The government will respond feebly. It will go into a contested
neighborhood, and then just like Fallujah, Ramadi, Tel Afar, the insurgents
will flee to take over another area on another day. Bit by bit they are
taking over the main parts of Baghdad. The only place we are sure they
cannot control is Sadr City, unless of course they want to take on Jaish
Mahdy [Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army], and that would be bloody.
A few minutes ago Jaafari came on television to tell everyone in Baghdad to
stay home. Can't wait for his next bold move.
There are flyers in public areas of Baghdad warning people not to gather in
large numbers because they will thereby become targets. I am trying to get a
copy of the flyer. 
Notwithstanding Al-Hayat's claim that Zarqawi and the Sunni resistance are
not together, my street listeners claim otherwise. My folks are convinced
that the two groups, broadly defined, are together, "100 percent" is the
claim of certainty. It is hard to get a handle on this because people in
Baghdad tend to lump all resistance groups, except for Zarqawi, into one
large category. 
More and more of even the most patriotic intelligentsia are departing. The
situation is dire, and those with escape valves are using them. [Some
organizations are]sending more of [their] staff to Arbil and Sulamaniyah and
out of Baghdad. Until about March this year, [some] thought that there was a
chance of returning to Baghdad. It is remarkable how incapable this
government is. Its only success is that it exists at all.
In the meantime, the embassy people act as if nothing in Baghdad is wrong
(except that they cannot walk in the Green Zone without body armor and they
have to take precautions against kidnapping). Recently, a group from State
and the military parachuted in from Washington [with fatuous advice] . . .
It is a fantasy world."




posted by Juan @ 9/18/2005 06:30:00 AM   



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