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[Wilse]

From the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4596745.stm

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has said he expects the trial of Saddam Hussein for alleged crimes against humanity to begin within two months.

"The Iraqi government is now doing its best to prepare the ground for a court... to decide... Saddam Hussein's future," he told CNN.

The former leader is being held by US troops at a secret location in Iraq as he awaits trial.

Also today in Iraq:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4594461.stm

An Iraqi aircraft carrying four Americans and one Iraqi has crashed in the east of the country.
-
"We don't yet know what caused the aircraft to go down. It's all under investigation."

US helicopters have regularly been brought down amid continuing violence in Iraq in more than two years since the US-led invasion.

Last week, insurgents shot down an observation helicopter near the town of Baquba, killing two people on board.

And:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4595879.stm

The kidnapped governor of Iraq's Anbar province has been found dead along with his suspected captors after a clash with US forces.

Raja Nawaf's body was found tied to a gas canister in a house in Rawa, near the Syria border, the government said.

A US military spokesman said one of its helicopters had flown the body to the city of Qaim on Monday where his family had identified him.

It has not been disclosed how the governor was killed.

I'll guess - airstrike.

[Glaucus]

Wilse wrote:

I'll guess - airstrike.

Perhaps they thought he was Italian!

- Mike

[Wilse]

Or one of the "hundreds of insurgents killed."

This new "Operation Lightning" should be a real boon for the coalition and puppet regime.
Half of Baghdad's "military age males" will probably end up doing the Abu Ghraib hokey-cokey.
That'll really endear them to the locals.

Still, they shouldn't have too much trouble finding hearts and minds - they seem to be splattered all over Iraq these days.

[Turambar]

This new "Operation Lightning"

FFS, why dont they just call it Blitzkrieg and be done with it.

[Karlos]

Turambar wrote:

FFS, why dont they just call it Blitzkrieg and be done with it.

Too difficult to spell?

[Wilse]

@Turambar:

FFS, why dont they just call it Blitzkrieg and be done with it.

Because Mr. Bush, in his time-honoured, English-mangling way, would probably end up referring to it as "Klitzbreathe" or something.

[Karlos]

@Wilse

They do? Well, I suppose there is still some life in Bush (unfortunately)...

[Wilse]

@Karlos:

[Turambar]

@ Karlos

Expanding the realms of bad taste as usual. Keep up the good work.

[Karlos]

Yep, that's me. Subtle as a brick, as always.

[Wilse]

@Karlos:

Yep, that's me. Subtle as a brick....

....with Marylin Manson sellotaped to it. ;-)

[Karlos]

I say, that actually sounds quite subtle; a brick with Marolyin Manson sellotaped to it. It's almost art :-D

[Wilse]

Aye but what if they plugged wee Marilyn into a huge Crate-combo, Pritt-sticked a spinning chainsaw to his forehead, then lobbed the brick, toecaps-first, through your living room window, with the white-couponed one screaming "SHE'S A MAN", just as you're unwittingly about to watch the crucial scene in "The Crying Game"?

[Karlos]

Then you'd get the Turner prize!