Interesting interactive Flash map from a journalism site, showing which reporters are embedded with which divisions in Iraq.

Locations of Embedded Reporters

flynn23 wrote:
] ] It was also a prime example of how private companies
] ] violated the embargo that the U.S. and the United Nations
] ] imposed on Iraq more than a decade ago.

This is still a big question in my mind. Especially with all the news reports about the thousands of gas masks and chemical protection suits that are being found in Iraq.

I've been scouring the news and blog sites for more information about those masks, but have yet to find one particular key piece of information: Who made the gas masks? Let alone who sold them to Iraq, or whether or not a well-equipped army or hospital *should* have gas masks on hand (I see it as a reasonable measure), I am still extremely curious as to who made those thousands of gas masks and protection suits, and how they found their way into Iraq. Were they locally produced? American-made? Russian imports? Czechoslovakian-knockoffs? Serbian surplus? None of the articles say, which I find as extremely curious, since the origins of nearly everything else *are* mentioned -- Russian weaponry, Syrian shipments of night goggles, Chinese-made silkworm missiles, etc. But the *thousands* of gas masks are still "origin unknown".

There *has* been mention in a couple places that the expiration date on some of the masks was clearly visible as 2007. So we know that they're new, and there's some type of documentation with them, in some readable language (or at least the numbers are readable), but we still don't know what the "Made in _____" tag says.

Maybe this means something, and maybe it doesn't. But one of the things I'm good at is spotting patterns, and this pattern still bothers me.

Where Are the Gas Masks From?

] The people I spoke with at Umm Qasr said they were happy
] about the removal of Saddam, as he had held them in
] terror for years. They took me to see the local Baath
] Party headquarters. They told me that many bad things
] happened there and that most of those picked up in the
] middle of the night and taken to that building were never
] seen again.
]
] I entered the building and walked around. I couldn't
] help noticing the excitement in the people's voices
] as they pointed out the bullet holes and the charred
] remains of where the building burned.
]
] That was when I first got the sense that these people
] were really eager to see Saddam and Baath gone.
]
] I asked several what they thought of the US/UK plan to
] remove Saddam. They told me: "Now that they have
] started to remove him, they cannot stop. If they do, then
] we are all as good as dead. He still has informants in
] Umm Qasr and he knows who is against him and who
] isn't."

ArabNews: Exclusive: 'If They Stop Now We're As Good As Dead'

] Asked what the future held for him, Arnett said: "There's
] a small island, inhabited in the South Pacific that I
] will try to swim to."
]
] "I'll leave, I'm embarrassed," he said.

I saw a clip of the interview on TV, and agree that Arnett was *way* out of line. He wasn't just offering opinions -- he was stating things as fact that just plain weren't true.

Note: If someone knows where there's an actual clip of the interview on the web, please meme it.

NBC Fires Peter Arnett Over Iraqi TV Interview

] When we finally made it to Safwan, Iraq, what we saw was
] utter chaos. Iraqi men, women and children were playing
] it up for the TV cameras, chanting: "With our blood,
] with our souls, we will die for you Saddam."
]
] I took a young Iraqi man, 19, away from the cameras and
] asked him why they were all chanting that particular
] slogan, especially when humanitarian aid trucks marked
] with the insignia of the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society,
] were distributing some much-needed food.
]
] His answer shouldn't have surprised me, but it did.
]
] He said: "There are people from Baath here reporting
] everything that goes on. There are cameras here recording
] our faces. If the Americans were to withdraw and
] everything were to return to the way it was before, we
] want to make sure that we survive the massacre that would
] follow as Baath go house to house killing anyone who
] voiced opposition to Saddam. In public, we always pledge
] our allegiance to Saddam, but in our hearts we feel
] something else."
]
] Different versions of that very quote, but with a common
] theme, I would come to hear several times over the next
] three days I spent in Iraq.
]
] The people of Iraq are terrified of Saddam Hussein.

Crankymessiah: Interesting to see something like this on an Arab news site.

ArabNews: Exclusive: 'Terrified of Saddam Hussein'

There's a ton of data here on the exact composition of the Iraq military forces, right down to describing the history of each division's military encounters, and the estimated types and quantities of equipment, guns, missiles, aircraft/helicopters, and so forth. There are also some extremely detailed maps of Iraq, and even aerial reconnaissance pictures of specific buildings in Baghdad (though I think that some of those buildings are definitely past-tense at the moment!).

On the plus side, the news ticker on this site seems to be up to the minute. On the minus side, some of the troop descriptions are very out-dated. Certain sections obviously haven't been updated since the 1991 Gulf War, whereas other sections seem to be current only up to around 2001, though I did see a couple pages that were current as of August 2002. Also on the minus side, though there does seem to be a map showing locations of military units, there's no date on it to indicate whether this is something relatively current, or if it too is a decade old.

Still though, for the sheer quantity of other information at this site (and the up-to-the-second news ticker), I recommend this link.

P.S. What I'd really like to find is a Java or Flash page that shows not only current Iraqi troop positions as reported in the media, but also a scrollable timeline so I could see how those positions have changed over the last several days. I haven't had any luck finding something like that, but if anyone else spots one, please Meme it!

GlobalSecurity.Org: Iraq Military Guide

This is one of my primary sources of news these days. If there's a particular story that I'm not hearing about in mainstream media, I just go search for it here. I especially like the timestamps on articles, to see how current they are. And I *love* that it indexes thousands of different international news sources, so I can read different angles on the same story.

Go Google!

Google News

] U.S. soldiers confiscated the prisoners' weapons and
] military equipment. The guns were old, but the gas masks
] weren't.
]
] "It looks like a regular chemical protection mask," said
] Sgt. Jennifer Raichle. "It was made in 2002. Brand new."
]
] The gas masks were indeed brand new, as were the
] decontamination kits, and atropeine -- used to treat
] exposure to nerve agents.
]
] "I would guess they were planning on using chemical
] warfare. They may or may not use it, but they were ready
] for it," Raichle said.

Newly-issued gas masks, to troops with old guns? And the next question in my mind is, where were these gasmasks manufactured? Iraqi-made? If so, where's the factory? And if not made in Iraq, then which country has been selling such recently-made gas masks to Iraq??

Iraq Chemical Warfare Clues

] At what point will the United States be able to declare
] that the regime has changed? When President Hussein is
] captured or dead? When his elite 25,000-man Special
] Republican Guard surrenders? Or, when the top 2,000
] members of the ruling Baath Party have been purged from
] government?

Or not until free elections have taken place?

Regime change: How will we know when we've won?

Eyewitness account of the bombing a few hours ago:

] Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's main presidential
] palace, a great rampart of a building 20 stories high,
] simply exploded in front of me -- a cauldron of fire,
] a 100ft sheet of flame and a sound that had my ears
] singing for an hour after. The entire, massively
] buttressed edifice shuddered under the impact. Then four
] more Cruise missiles came in.
. . .
] No doubt this morning the Iraqi minister of information
] will address us all again and insist that Iraq will prevail.
] We shall see. But many Iraqis are now asking an obvious
] question: How many days? Not because they want the Americans
] or the British in Baghdad, though they may profoundly wish
] it. But because they want this violence to end: Which, when
] you think of it, is exactly why these raids took place.

ArabNews: Baghdad's Night of Terror