] The union has made about 3,000 masks, and an unknown
] number of people have taken up the call and made their
] own, Ismael said.
]
] The scientists came up with the concept by taking apart
] Iraqi army gas masks imported from the former Yugoslavia.
] The tight-fitting rubber masks, with glass eyepieces,
] have activated charcoal filters in metal canisters that
] hang from the front.

My quest for the origin of the Iraqi gas masks continues . . .

In this article, it's not clear whether they're talking about new or old gas masks, but the statement that Yugoslavia was exporting gas masks to Iraq is intriguing, especially because of other reports that certain chemical protection equipment was marked in Russian... It makes me wonder whether the observers may have seen Cyrillic lettering and assumed that it was Russian, when it was actually some other language such as Serbian (The Croatians use the western alphabet that we do, but the Serbians use the Russian "Cyrillic" alphabet).

It may sound "conspiracy theory-ish", but would it really surprise anyone if it was discovered that there was a link between the Iraqi government and the Serbian mafia?

Kurds Making Homemade Gas Masks

] One of the chemicals found was marked both in Russian and
] English with the name sarin, one of the most sinister and
] dangerous nerve agents.

A question in my mind, is whether it was really Russian, or might have been some other language that used the same Cyrillic alphabet...

Troops Discover Sarin Gas Testers

] Adam Osborne, 64, a technical writer, business executive
] and computer pioneer whose Silicon Valley achievements
] included the introduction of the Osborne 1, the first
] portable personal computer, died March 18 at his home in
] Kodiakanal, India.

Awww. The "Osborne I" was my first personal computer, and I still have many fond memories of playing the early Infocom games on it. I still have my old CP/M operating system diskettes, though the only times I dig the Osborne out these days are to take it to the "historical" displays at the occasional technology convention. I was also pleased to see an Osborne I on display in the Smithsonian when I visited Washington DC.

I have many memories of my time in the service that are wrapped up with the Osborne, since I would carry it with me whenever I was assigned to temporary duty somewhere. I lugged the Osborne (we used to joke that it was "transportable" but not necessarily "portable") through many an airport, and would set it up in my tiny barracks room to play games such as "Zork I" and "Deadline" off the 5 1/4" diskettes, when I wasn't working on the U-2 aircraft!

A toast to Osborne -- I'm sorry to see you go.

Elonka

Computer Pioneer Adam Osborne Dies at 64

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?

(3/31/2003)
] Support for the war in Iraq and perceptions of how
] well it is going have remained stable over the past week --
] down somewhat from the initial measures following the
] start of the war.
]
] The latest poll shows that 70% of Americans favor the war
] and 27% oppose it, essentially unchanged from last week.
]
] Thirty-three percent say the war is going "very well,"
] virtually the same as the percentage who said that at the
] beginning of last week, but down from 44% who said that a
] week ago Sunday and 62% the day before.
]
] In the wake of criticism that the war is going more
] slowly than anticipated, 72% of Americans say it is going
] according to plan, while 25% disagree.
]
] Sixty-nine percent say the United States is "certain" to
] win the war, while 25% say "likely." Just 4% think the
] United States will not win.

I'm recommending this link not just for the results of the polls as of today, but also for future reference to the Gallup site.

Gallup Poll Results

] 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'

] Iraqis are giving passing Americans the "thumbs up" sign,
] which the troops interpret as a symbol of support. But
] many veteran travelers insist that the gesture is a crass
] Middle Eastern insult. How should coalition forces take
] those skyward thumbs?

When I saw the pictures of Iraqis giving the thumbs up to American GIs, this came immediately to my mind as well. Maybe they really are trying to indicate support with an American hand signal. Or maybe not.

In my own travels, I've learned that the difference between giving a positive hand signal and nonverbally cussing someone out can frequently change by no more than a few miles across a border. The "thumbs up" sign is indeed an "Up Yours" sign in many countries. In other areas, the "Okay" signal of making a circle with thumb and forefinger is equivalent to telling someone to go jack themselves off. In Thailand, it's not so much hands, as which ways that someone's *feet* are pointing -- crossing your legs in such a way as to point one foot towards another person nearby is considered a huge insult. And in Malaysia, when I was chatting via sign language with the deaf community there, I soon realized that the reason they kept jumping every time I made the sign for "teacher", was that what in America is the fingerspelling sign for the letter "T", in Malaysia is basically telling someone that they're a piece of excrement!

Indeed, when I arrive in a new country now, one of the first things I do (after learning how to say "Thank You" in the native language), is to doublecheck which hand signals are positive, and which are negative. Otherwise, the first time a local asks me if I want to go to dinner or something, I might be responding unwittingly with "F--k you, sounds like a great idea!"

What Does a 'Thumbs Up' Mean in Iraq?