The horrors of Iraq.
By on Jul 10th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
The horrors of Iraq.
CNN’s Nic Robertson: “One international official told me of reports among his staff that a 15-year-old girl had been beheaded and a dog’s head sewn on her body in its place; and of a young child who had had his hands drilled and bolted together before being killed.” More at The Plank.
View Most Popular
Advertisement
What We're About
What We're Fighting For
What We're Fighting Against
Featured
Subscribe to the Progress Report
Topic CloudView topics sorted by popularity
Afghanistan
Bachmann
Beck
Boehner
Business
Cheney
Civil Rights
Congress
Corporate Ethics
Dobbs
Economy
Education
Election
Energy
Environment
Ethics
Fox News
Gingrich
Glenn Beck
Global Warming
Health Care
Immigration
International Relations
Justice
LGBT
Lieberman
Limbaugh
Media
Military
O'Reilly
Obama
Palin
Pelosi
Politics
Race
Radical Right
Religion
Sports
Steele
Stimulus
Tea Parties
Tea Party
Terrorism
Veterans
Women's Rights
Visit Our Affiliated Sites
Reports
In-depth studies on select topics
Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.
ArchivesBlog Roll
Winning the hearts and minds.
July 10th, 2006 at 2:07 pmSo does this fit the definition getting medieval on someone’s ass?
This reaches a level of brutality I don’t think my tiny mind can comprehend…..so how about that headbutt in the World Cup match?
July 10th, 2006 at 2:08 pmHorrible if it actually happened, yet as we learned with even events in New Orleans, there were way too many unsubstantiated rumors floating around for the distinct purpose of making things sound worse than they were. Anyone remember “dead bodies floating around in the Superdome” or “people being raped at the Superdome” or many of the other rumors that later turned out to be false?
It’s a travesty that I can’t even have confidence in our news media to tell us facts rather than baseless rumors, but that’s what has happened. I can’t even have confidence that Nic Robertson’s third (or fourth, fifth, etc) hand claims are even true.
But “One international official told me of reports among his staff” does not inspire confidence at all.
July 10th, 2006 at 2:11 pmSecretary of Defense under George H. W Bush, Dick Cheney
July 10th, 2006 at 2:13 pm#3,
July 10th, 2006 at 2:13 pmMaybe they could say they found those unfortunate children in a newly built school. Sorry for being morbid but that story is just sickening.
This is what Ive been saying for a long time
America: Government of Cowards invading Iraq
Look, for example, at the contrast between George Bush’s rhetoric directed at North Korea and his rhetoric directed at Saddam Hussein. Saddam, he said, had been given enough chances. He had run out of time. There was no point in any more talk. Blah, blah, etc. Saddam, of course, didn’t have nuclear weapons, or even chemical or biological weapons.
With North Korea, the president says we must seek a diplomatic solution, and diplomacy, of course, takes a lot of time, etc. and so forth. Gosh, we hate to see North Korea so isolated.
What’s the difference? Saddam was weak, his regime was a toothless old hag, and Bush and his war hawks knew it. We could bully and invade him without fear. North Korea, however, is a regime with very sharp teeth. It has a fully equipped standing army of more than 1 million men. It has artillery wheel to wheel along the demilitarized zone. Even without its missiles, nuclear or conventional, war with North Korea would produce casualties in the tens of thousands, and would do it in a matter of days.
July 10th, 2006 at 2:14 pmDoodle Bug,
What’s the difference? Saddam was weak, his regime was a toothless old hag, and Bush and his war hawks knew it. We could bully and invade him without fear. North Korea, however, is a regime with very sharp teeth. It has a fully equipped standing army of more than 1 million men. It has artillery wheel to wheel along the demilitarized zone. Even without its missiles, nuclear or conventional, war with North Korea would produce casualties in the tens of thousands, and would do it in a matter of days.
I’m glad someone has figured out why we treated Saddam, Iran, and North Korea differently. You’d think that you people would have already figured it out by reading it spelled out in the Iraq Options Paper of Downing Street Memo fame, but I guess not.
Good job Doodle Bug, you’re smarter than most of the anti-war folks I know.
July 10th, 2006 at 2:17 pmThat is sickening. I would want some corroboration of these stories, of course.
July 10th, 2006 at 2:18 pm7# I agree
Iraq was being dissarmed by the Un weapons inspectors after the Kuwait war, Knowing fine there was no serious weapons there and bombing the shit out of the place 6 months before the war before an illegal invasion.
July 10th, 2006 at 2:27 pmI agree a despicable nasty thing to do
Also America is scared shit of NK and Iran and thinking of using nuclear weapons ( The irony) well if they do I personnaly will be out standing in frot of Embassies and ASDA stores boycotting Americans goods forever
Seixon,
Boy you sure don’t pay attention do you. We have all been saying what Doodle Bug posted. Keep up.
July 10th, 2006 at 2:28 pmGod Bless America.
July 10th, 2006 at 2:30 pm13# This happens all the time with dog experiments , i once saw a video of a dog waking up from anethetic only to find another dogs head had been sown onto its neck the experiments these days are beyond belief
Ever wondered what happens in the UK to 10,000 people who dissapear every year
July 10th, 2006 at 2:35 pmI bet some are kidnapped by Goverment officials and made to dig secret underground bunkers and used for similiar experiments
there was a british woman on the roof of a flooded building in New Orleans shouting for help. the police came along in a boat and asked her to flash her tits to be rescued she refused and the police left her on the roof
As for the rapes in the superbowl , I believe them to be true
July 10th, 2006 at 2:52 pmSeixon’x New Orleans comments are just more of throwing around bullshit to confuse a subject. all it takes is one word.
Truth:
There were bodies floating around the Superdome.
Seixon BS:
There were bodies floating around in the Superdome.
July 10th, 2006 at 2:54 pm[moderated by admin]
July 10th, 2006 at 3:13 pmI’m AMAZED no one picked up the reference to ‘Mars Attacks!’, in which Sarah Jessica Parker has a DOG’S HEAD SEWN TO HER DECAPITATED BODY.
Now, I ask you, is that the kind of movie reference you would expect Shiite terrorists to make?
It’s quite a bit more likely that this is one of them new Skinhead Nazi U.S. Military new-hires, with a sense of humor honed in the backwoods and gullies of Alabama.
Bush Must Resign.
July 10th, 2006 at 3:17 pmBeginning to look a lot like ‘Nam, eh?
July 10th, 2006 at 3:25 pmPutting our young soldiers in life threatning situations
to satisfy the Corporate Military profit lines is not
only making criminals of them but skewing perception
of America in general to the entire World.
Who Cares?
I DO!
Off topic…wasn’t the first primate in space a Chimp?
(You see where I’m going with this!)
Who hasn’t at one time or another decapitated some girl and sewn a dog’s head on her body? I know I did all the time in college! Geez, lighten up you libruls!
July 10th, 2006 at 3:28 pmStill lettin’ off steam I say!
-Flush
(only the relief valves can’t handle this kind of pressure, she’s gonna blow wide open, much worse than this.)
July 10th, 2006 at 3:38 pmDebased people turn to nothing more than clever animals in situations such as this, and they stay that way. Made in the USA.
July 10th, 2006 at 3:42 pmThe terror that America has imported to the people of Iraq…
…will one day reach these shores…
…this is the way of Karma…
July 10th, 2006 at 3:58 pmThe day will come when you realize that the world is a far harsher place then you would hope or expect, and that day will be too late. The wealth of the US is slowly being bled out to the other 95% of the world’s population, allowing them to develop economically and militarily, until we are eventually surpassed in power by sheer numbers. Our inability to swat North Korea like a gnat to remove an openly hostile regime is indicative that we’ve already lost, so it’s just a matter of time as those forces encroach on our way of life.
Wait until these reports are about our citizens around the globe, then here at home. Unless and until you are willing to deal with those behaviours head-on, you are vunerable to them.
July 10th, 2006 at 3:59 pmWait until these reports are about our citizens around the globe, then here at home. Unless and until you are willing to deal with those behaviours head-on, you are vunerable to them.
Comment by Jason M. Hendler — July 10, 2006 @ 3:59 pm
This message was brought to you by Halliburton and Standard oil companies.
July 10th, 2006 at 4:07 pmRemember: Fear is a great bussiness.
Jason Hendler the gardener-
July 10th, 2006 at 4:10 pmWhats that, A BUG!
Read poison label, use 10 times the recommended amount, every day
sit back and just wait for the cancer
I remember when it was said: “The Sun never sets on the British Empire”. That does not seem to be the case today. Once a nation depletes its finantual resources, the Sun sets. The Brits took almost 400 years to accomplish this. W is shooting for 230 years or so for the American adventure and he just might make it.
July 10th, 2006 at 4:32 pm“The Sun never sets on the British Empireâ€. That does not seem to be the case today
Comment by WaltTheMan #27
Walt,
The legacy of British/American WASP/Catholic colonialism is EXACTLY the reason the world remains in turmoil today…
…white crusaders and colonizers (from the Spanish Inquisition to the slave trade and NOW Iraq) have taught the world a brand of uncivilized behavior…
…that has ALL COUNTRIES of COLOR very much aware that they need to arm themselves …
…especially with nukes and other WMDs…
…for self defense…
…Mr. Danger has affirmed that stance with his example of attacking the weakened dictator Saddam…
…while appearing to genuflect to the more ferocious, and vociferous NK and Iran…
…Iran and NK (among others- Venezuela) will NEVER deal diplomatically with the criminal coward Bushiva (or his racist lackeys/co-conspirators in Germany or Britain) …
July 10th, 2006 at 4:51 pmRight winger Fred Barnes of Fox: “The idea that there could possibly be any civil war in Iraq is a democrat hoax.”
July 10th, 2006 at 5:44 pmKeep this kind of thing in mind when we finally do bring the troops home. Trust that you’ll see it again here, if there remains a here for them to come home to. And remember who’s to blame for creating this situation in the first place.
July 10th, 2006 at 5:49 pmI have no doubt that all of these stories are true, except they HAPPENED WHEN SADDAM WAS IN POWER!
July 10th, 2006 at 5:59 pmI guess this kind of thing is what Bill Kristol is thinking of when he explains that “things are getting better in Iraq and President Bush is not getting any credit!”
July 10th, 2006 at 5:59 pmRepublican Soldier, just try to use your noggin for a moment. Shiites were not roving in armed bands killing Sunnis when Saddam (a Sunni) was in power. Saddam kept various sectarian forces from killing eachother. Yes, at times, he killed lots of Shiites and Kurds, mainly in the ’80’s and early ’90’s when he was still our ally.
July 10th, 2006 at 6:02 pm#29 – Bluedog49,
July 10th, 2006 at 6:05 pmFred Barnes is right for once! What is happening in Iraq is tribal warfare, not civil war. With the below-the-chin hair cuts, it gets very brutal and extremely uncivil.
Walt, you can call it what you want, but when two or three major factions within a country are fighting it out to the death, whether it’s on tribal, religious, economic or landgrabbing, we usually refer to this as a civil war.
July 10th, 2006 at 6:15 pmOh, but we closed the “rape rooms!?”
SSDD (wiki it..)
July 10th, 2006 at 6:40 pm#35 – Bluedog49,
July 10th, 2006 at 6:47 pmCivil war occurs between political factions. Tribal warfare occurs when you have ethnic factions feuding over territorial aspirations. Iraq has yet to coalesce into a country.
Whatever you want to call it, Walt, it’s pure chaos created by the Bush administration.
July 10th, 2006 at 6:53 pmI have no doubt that all of these stories are true, except they HAPPENED WHEN SADDAM WAS IN POWER!
Comment by Retired Republican Soldier
Really? I hope you’re right. Do you have a link we can go to and read all about it?
July 10th, 2006 at 6:53 pmFred Barnes is right for once! What is happening in Iraq is tribal warfare, not civil war. With the below-the-chin hair cuts, it gets very brutal and extremely uncivil.
Comment by WaltTheMan
==================
Barnes?Is that clueless Bush administration waterboy still in the political commentary business?
In any other profession,he would have been looking for other employment a long time ago.
July 10th, 2006 at 7:05 pm“A year from now, I’d be surprised if there’s not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush.” Richard Perle, 9-22-03
July 10th, 2006 at 7:28 pmEven if America had arrived in Iraq with a detailed post-war plan, twice the number of troops, and all the counterinsurgency expertise in the world, my guess is that we would have found ourselves in exactly the same spot. –Lawrence Kaplan
Agreed, twice the troops wouldn’t be enough either. But to be fair, a million soldiers might have worked.
July 10th, 2006 at 8:30 pmI knew it, Retired Republican Soldier always disappears when it comes to the details.
July 10th, 2006 at 8:55 pmI knew it, Retired Republican Soldier always disappears when it comes to the details.
Comment by Zooey
No, he is putting back his old green uniform and step in front of the mirror to ease the pain.
July 10th, 2006 at 10:16 pmIraq is so messed up by the Bush Regime now, that any atrocity is possible! Pentagon is reporting that 2 of our soldiers that were kidnapped were found mutilated > some speculate that the Iraqis cut their balls and dicks off among other things! This kind of thing happened to the French soldiers in Nigeria years ago! Cutting off a girl’s head and sewing on a dog’s head sounds farfetched, but it possibly could have happened?!
July 10th, 2006 at 10:21 pm[...] and of a young child who had had his hands drilled and bolted together before being killed.†Permalink| [...]
July 11th, 2006 at 5:44 am#37
July 11th, 2006 at 9:56 amBeing a Sunni or Shia is not a an ethnic division. It is religious. In Iraq, like most Middle Eastern countires religion is the political movement also. So yes the fighting between the two groups is political and yes it si a civil war. The kurds are considered of a different ethnicity but they are also politically different also. These groups aren’t little tribes fighting over the local water hole.
Read the article more carefully, and ask yourself what standards of evidence we see here.
Where does this information come from?
We read it in the link to the “The Plank,” the blog at The New Republic’s site. They say it is from “CNN’s Nic Robertson” (he’s CNN’s senior international correspondent), present it as a direct quote of Robertson by setting it off typographically. But they don’t say where that is from.
CNN.com does not bring up any of this on their website, and a look at this on Google news and the general web show that only the Plank and ThinkProgress.org (and now RigInt) are running it. A Google of “nic robertson” drilled bolted brings no relevant articles. It doesn’t come up in any transcripts of Robertson on CNN, and frankly would show a real lapse of judgement to be presenting this on a general news feed that kids could see.
Who is the primary source of information?
The New Republic heard it from Nic who heard it from an unnamed “international official” who heard it from unnamed staffers who very likely heard it from someone else.
That is at best fifth hand information.
Fifth hand information. No names, dates, places, photographs or any other verifiable facts about the alleged original incident. No names of the people in the chain who are bringing this story forward, so that their credibility can be examined.
The remark above by “Paul in LA” that this echoes a scene in Mars Attacks! is an astute observation that we must factor in.
To confirm this, see mention of Industrial Light and Magic’s work on the scene: “Lake’s head was also removed from her body and was replaced with the head of her chihuahua. The melding of Lake’s head on a CG dog was fantastic.”
http://www.vfxhq.com/1996/mars-ilm.html
Given the lack of sourcing, lack of evidence, and a cultural reference that would be far more likely to appeal to an American monster than an Iraqi monster, until I hear otherwise I am inclined to think that this is bunkum. What’s going on that we need a shiny object dangled in front of us to distract us?
I think this is going to go out of control really fast unless it gets countered, and that it is in someone’s interest to spread this vile and disgusting assertion.
Avalon
July 11th, 2006 at 2:22 pmCivil war occurs between political factions. Tribal warfare occurs when you have ethnic factions feuding over territorial aspirations. Iraq has yet to coalesce into a country.
Comment by WaltTheMan #37
Walt,
Fu*k semantics…
…you say tomato…
…bluedog tomahto…
…people are still dying…
…because of the TREASONOUS criminal Bushite junta…
July 11th, 2006 at 6:35 pmUpdate: a little more context for the original story.
The New Republic chose to leave out some very crucial text after the description of the alleged atrocities:
“Whether or not the reports are accurate, the staff took them as fact. It seems in this climate of fear, no act is so barbaric it can’t be believed. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.”
Which totally changes the meaning of the passage from LOOK WHAT THESE MONSTERS DID! to a more reasonable PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO BELIEVE ANY CRAZY STORIES GOING AROUND
More complete text was found at http://www.first-draft.com//modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6488
July 12th, 2006 at 2:05 amHow To Sew A Dog’s Head Onto A Corpse
You will require:
1 x Gullible US Public
1 x War In Iraq
1 x Hollywood Movie plot, “Mars Attacks!”
1 x Un-named US Official
1 x Compliant US Media Reporter
1 x Republican Website
0 x Corpses
0 x Dog’s Heads
Instructions:
Take the gullible US public and simmer in fear for three years. Bring the War In Iraq to the boil.
In a seperate bowl, embed the compliant US media reporter with the un-named US official and stir thoroughly.
Take one small slice of the Hollywood movie plot. Add to the mixture and whip till frothing.
Serve one small portion (raw) live on CNN. Tantalizing!
Pour the remainder into the Republican website and allow to chill.
Extract small portions, carefully removed from full context, and serve with generous helpings of breathless outrage, xenophic fear and wilful ignorance.
July 17th, 2006 at 1:39 am