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New Trend will not be published on April 10, 11
and 12 as our editors and
writers will participate in peace rallies and
speak at various places.
A.N.S.W.E.R
has called for a rally to SURROUND
THE WHITE HOUSE on April 12
(Saturday). The American people are not being
fooled by the
media
hype. We
urge Muslims to join the
American
masses and
"answer" the warmongering
Zionists.
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DAY 21: U.S. Bridgehead in Baghdad: Staged
"Public Support" Photo Op at Statue
Disappearance Of Iraqi Government Officials Leads
to Theories about Lull in
Fighting: Where is Saddam ?
On April 9, 2003 U.S. tank units rolled
into the central "government
showpiece" area of Baghdad with NO RESISTANCE.
The main show of the day was
an orchestrated "photo op" staged ostensibly with
the help of Iraqi
collaborators during which a statue of Saddam
Hussain was pulled down. The
number of civilians who showed up for this
"event" was small, at most a
hundred or a little over. However, the U.S.
media
turned it into it a
propaganda opportunity to create the sense that
Iraqis are welcoming the
American invaders.
[Al-Jazeerah
and Abu Dhabi TV seem to have
been subdued by yesterday's
attack on their facilities and dutifully gave
extensive footage of the drama
in which Saddam's statue was pulled down.]
Only a few blocks away, American units
stopped their advance when they
came under intense light arms fire at Baghdad
university.
As in Basrah, the Iraqi collaborators were
rewarded by U.S. permission
(or masterly inactivity) to let them break into
Iraqi government offices and
buildings and loot to their heart's content.
American
media
and officials are
identifying the Iraqi collaborators as
"Shias."
CIA
agent Chalabi, who has been brought
into the Nasiria area to
start a Karzai-type "government" has also been
identified as "Shia." This
gives the incorrect impression that Iraqi Shias
are cooperating with the
American invasion forces, though most Shias are
nationalists and opposed the
U.S. invasion. Such identification could be an
attempt to create sectarian
conflict in the Muslim world. Observers say that
if collaborators with
America are seen as "Shias," it would make Shias,
pariahs in the Muslim
world, not unlike Karzai's family which is hated
not only in
Afghanistan
but
throughout the Muslim world
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WHERE IS SADDAM HUSSAIN? FOUR THEORIES
The sudden lull in the fighting and the
disappearance of Iraqi
information minister Saeed al-Sahhaf and other
officials has led to intense
speculation about what might have happened. Here
are the four possibilities:
1. Saddam Hussain and his closest officials were
killed in the "bunker
buster" strike by the U.S. at the restaurant in
Mansurah area of Baghdad.
Thus he is
shaheed.
2. He is hiding in the western or northern area
of Baghdad, preparing a
counterattack. This would be in consonance with
his jihadi pronouncements
till now.
3. He has retreated to Mosul or Tikrit and will
continue the fight from
there. The presence of several strong Iraqi
divisions in those areas lends
credence to this theory.
4. The most cynical but well reasoned theory is
as follows: The U.S. has made
a deal with Russia to avoid suffering heavy
casualties in Baghdad and to
avoid the continuance of heavy civilian Iraqi
casualties which have outraged
the Arab and Muslim world. According to this
deal, Saddam has gone to Russia
by way of
Syria.
This accounts for the road
convoy with the Russian
ambassador in it which suffered an attack on the
way to Syria. This story is
supported by persistent rumors that Saddam was
hiding in the Russian embassy
in Baghdad. The sudden lull in the Iraqi defense
and the non-appearance of
Al-Sahhaf and other officials indicates that the
entire leadership has left.
If number four is correct, the Americans
will now negotiate the
surrender of well-armed Iraqi forces in Kirkuk,
Mosul and Tikrit. The
resistance in Baghdad may still be stiff because
some anti-American units
and mujahideen groups will fight even without
overall leadership.
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2003-04-10 Thu 18:49ct