Baghdad search for 'downed pilot'

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Although, pentagon and centcom are denying this, but some POW allegedly bailed out in Tigris river. Saddam’s VP: We Have Prisoners of War. He said they will be paraded on TV.

**Baghdad search for ‘downed pilot’ **

A massive search is under way along the River Tigris in central Baghdad after unconfirmed reports that a coalition pilot had parachuted over the capital following an air raid.

Live television pictures showed speedboats searching the river and soldiers on the bank shooting volleys of rifle-fire into the water.

American sources have denied that any plane has been brought down over Baghdad.

Crowds rushed to one of the main bridges after witnesses said someone had been seen parachuting into the river.

Baghdad stretches along both banks of the Tigris, with 11 bridges connecting the two halves of the city.

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If the Iraqi's produce the pictures of any downed pilots and captured American troops that will be particularly humiliating for the United States. But it's not going as easily as expected for the American's is it? :)

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Crowds rushed to one of the main bridges after witnesses said someone had been seen parachuting into the river.
The picture of Iraqi soldiers firing into the river makes me slightly doubtful at his chances of still being alive. This is all going rather poorly for the US - whatwith the grenade attack being conducted by one of their own, and the latest "friendly fire" attack.

If the individual is alive, he would technically be a POW - unless i am mistaken? Although the US government has carved an abysmal and shameless image of itself by flaunting the majority of international tenets relating to torture of POWs, i hope this American pilot is treated humanely as all POWs should be.

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Someone should tell the Iraqis to look for dog tags of these POWs, if any, and read their names and name of their unit, company, division on the air. Im sure some news agency somewhere would capture that, if not ZNN :D

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Now the American regime is admitting it’s soldiers are missing, just like Iraqi’s are claiming:-

Rumsfeld Says Some U.S. Soldiers Missing

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday some American soldiers are missing in the fighting in Iraq and that there is a report of a missing allied aircraft. Rumsfeld said he could not provide any information about a missing aircraft. In Baghdad, security officers searched the banks of the Tigris River, apparently looking for one of more pilots who may have bailed out of a downed plane. Asked what he could say about missing pilots, Rumsfeld replied, “Nothing.” He suggested that the search in Baghdad was staged. “There has been a report of an aircraft missing,” the secretary acknowledged on NBC’s "Meet the Press. “I don’t want to speculate because I simply don’t know.” Rumsfeld said there are some American troops who are missing in Iraq. He noted that under the Geneva Convention governing prisoners of war, “It’s illegal to do things to POWs that are humiliating to those prisoners.” “There are, we believe, there are some American soldiers missing.” He said there also could be captured journalists.

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ah, but you are wrong there Malik. Remember that no Iraqi can be telling the truth - it must be lies, it must be propaganda.

:mad: How dare he make this statement - Rumsfeld’s arrogance in being able to say this, subsequent to how he and his criminal cowboys are treating POWs at Guantanamo, makes me feel like withdrawing what i stated earlier. Pray tell - what right does he feel he has to make this comment - has the US government clarified its position regarding whether or not they are obtaining information from their prisoners through the use of torture? Have they given their reply yet to the letter from Human Rights Watch’s Kenneth Roth? Will Donald present us with some statements regarding that issue?

It’s just this insufferable arrogance that ticks me off. One set of laws for others, one set of laws for themselves.

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some 10 soldiers are missing.
Time to send in Rambo :D

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BBC news site flashing lastest that Donald Rumsfeld is saying that some US pilots could be POW's in Iraq, as another BBC flash says 50 US soldiers have either been injured or killed in fierce fighting around Nasiriya.

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Looks like no one is too sure what is going on regarding the river tigris issue

Source [http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1084763,00.html]

PILOT CLAIMS DISCOUNTED

The Arabic television network Al-Jazeera has now reported that Iraq has NOT captured any Allied airmen.

It had been claimed that the crew had bailed out over Baghdad and parachuted into the River Tigris.

Live television pictures from the Iraqi capital showed yelling soldiers searching the banks of the river Tigris and firing volleys of shots into the water. Later, they appeared to be looking for something in tall reeds at the river’s edge.
Other troops in speedboats searched up and down the water.

The US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later suggested the search for the airmen had been staged.

Sky’s David Chater, who is operating under reporting restrictions in Baghdad, said he had been told that one of the pilots had been caught.

“A reliable witness said he saw the pilot ditching in the river. He did not have a huge (parachute) canopy - it was quite small.”

But on American television, the US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had no information about the claims by Iraq.

And US Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, discounted the claims.

“We have nothing to substantiate that claim that any pilot has bailed out of his airplane over Baghdad,” he said on US TV.

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Newsflash on BBC site states Al Jazeera broadcasts Iraqi pictures of captured " US soldiers".

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ukwali: *
Newsflash on BBC site states Al Jazeera broadcasts Iraqi pictures of captured " US soldiers".
[/QUOTE]

can't wait to see

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ukwali: *
Newsflash on BBC site states Al Jazeera broadcasts Iraqi pictures of captured " US soldiers".
[/QUOTE]

All the other networks are reporting this as well...when we see the Al Jazeera video we will know for sure.

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Apparently, one of the prisoners is a woman.

From BBC - details very sparse: Two of them identified themselves as “Edgar from Texas” and “James Reilly, 31, from New Jersey”.

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Sunday, March 23, 2003

By Liza Porteus

Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera showed footage Sunday of what it said were five U.S. prisoners, including one woman.

The station showed footage of the alleged prisoners being questioned by their captors and being asked things such as where they were from and their names. The tape that was broadcast was reportedly provided by Iraqi television and was edited.

“This is the first we’ve seen of it – it looks like Iraqi TV propaganda,” said a U.S. Defense Department spokesperson. “What they’re doing is wrong – we’re trying to get to the bottom of what we’re seeing. We’re investigating the tape now.”

Three prisoners – including the woman – said they were from Texas, another was from New Jersey and another from Kansas.

“They don’t bother me and I don’t bother them,” said the Kansas man. “I was told to come here,” he said when asked why he came to Iraq.

The Texas man said: “I follow orders,” when asked why he was there.

When asked how the Iraqi people have received him – whether it be with “flowers or guns” – the Texas man said “I don’t understand … they’re people of their own country.”

In the interviews, two of the prisoners identified their unit only as the 507th Maintenance. The woman said she was 30 years old. She had no shoes on.

The station said the prisoners were captured around Nasiriyah.

Al-Jazeera also showed at least one prisoner laying down on a cot, appearing wounded. Two were bandaged.

One of the male prisoners, sitting up, was being interviewed by an unseen person holding a microphone labeled “Iraqi TV.” The soldier spoke in English and at one point said: “I’m sorry. I don’t understand you.”

The station also showed bodies in uniform in an Iraqi morgue that it said were Americans.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, reacting to the video during an appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation, said: “That’s a violation of the Geneva Convention.”

He said the convention prohibits photographing and humiliating captured troops.

Defense officials said they were analyzing the video. They also said there is nothing in the tape that would lead them to believe the prisoners were not really U.S. troops.

The Associated Press and Fox News’ David Lee Miller and Major Garrett contributed to this report.

FOX NEWS

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rumsfeld is funny...he is talking about violations lol

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man this really shows how weak these guys really are, soo scared.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Sheraz CT: *
rumsfeld is funny...he is talking about violations lol
[/QUOTE]

vilotation my @$$ what they did to the Taliban and Al-Qead in cuba are not violations either. THIS IS GOOD

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i am not certain about this, you guys:(

Some of these American soldiers are basically just kids, fresh out of college/university... it's not right to treat them any less than how we want the US to treat Iraqi soldiers. Everyone knows how "anti" i am about anything that has to do with the current US administration, so i am not saying this out of naivety or niceness. It's only fair that we apply international laws to ourselves, just as we expect others to adhere by them. i was the one arguing in this Forum, in the Guantanamo detainees thread, that the US was seriously violating international law. Because the tables have turned, does not mean that the laws have changed :( It still applies to the government of Iraq.

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DOH! US TV is of course free of all propoganda. :disgust:

This is rich! coming from Mr. Rumsfeld.

The US calmly refused to treat afghan soldiers as POW’s. They will eventually bring back Iraqi troops and refuse to treat them as POW’s but in the mean time he wants to make sure that the Allied trrops are treated right.

What about the pictures of the Iraqi soldiers that have been shown in the news channels here? Is the US of A then in “a violation of the Geneva Convention.”

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Sheraz CT: *
rumsfeld is funny...he is talking about violations lol
[/QUOTE]

That was quickly rubbished by UK news correspondents who said it was a bit rich of the American's to say that seen as they were parading Iraqi soldiers on tv as well. In fact the Red Cross said the US military showing pictures of captured Iraqi soldiers was a violation of the Geneva conventions. So the US is no better than the Iraqi's in this regard it seems?

But I agree with Nadia we should NOT glorify or celebrate the fate of US soldiers in Iraq, because this is a war dictated to by the vested interests of a small right-wing lobby in the USA i.e. the Bush regime, and these soldiers have no real choice but to follow orders. Let us pray that the pressure increases in the US for the US military to cease it's illegal war against Iraq so that these American soldiers can return home safetly.