Let's put an end to speculation about all the 'Foreign Terrorists' in Iraq . . .

[CaptnKirk]

But does that make him a turrurist?

If he's going to Disneyland, yes.

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken

Originally posted by: Czar

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken

Originally posted by: Czar

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Does anyone on either side have some hard, verifiable numbers to prove their claims either way?

No?

Didn't think so.

is there a god?

The terrorists seem to think so. They'd also like to send you to see him as soon as they possibly can.

so what are you claiming, they are mostly iraqies, mostly foreign or?

What are they mostly? They are mostly idiots. 'Let's prove how much we hate the Americans by blowing up our own stuff and killing our own people.' Sounds like a really well though-out plan.

btw, the insurgency is not about ejecting coalition troops from Iraq. It's little more than an attempt at a power grab by those in charge of the insurgency who are fooling the ignorant poor in league with them into believing this is about their country. It's not. I know it's not and I think anyone with more than half a brain recognizes that as well. Take good ol' Mookie as an example. Sadr didn't/doesn't care about Iraq or Iraqis. Sadr cared/cares about Sadr and how much personal power he can wield.

but are those fighting the occupation force in Iraq mostly iraqies or mostly foreign?

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: Perknose

Well, it's not like you're going to get the terrorists to sign an affadavit with their home address and phone number, along with their country's equivalent of their social security number and driver's license. What do you think this is, a Bush campaign event? :shocked:

We no longer even enter entire cities. We aren't even in control of large parts of Bahgdad. Your demand for hard numbers is a pie in the sky diversion. But, Sparky, the truth is not only out there, it's right here in this thread.

Why not ask the man George Bush trusts to be in charge of our military in the theatre? His answer is BOLDED in CapnKirk's OP: Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, estimated that the number of foreign fighters in Iraq was below 1,000.

Want more? Why not pay attention to the hard facts that ARE available, like this other bolded part of the OP: "People try to turn this into the mujahedin, jihad war. It's not that," said one U.S. intelligence official. "How many foreign fighters have been captured and processed? Very few." [/quote]
And what, exactly do you get out of that?

How many Iraqi insurgents have been captured and processed? Most are killed, just like the foreigners.

The estimated number of foreign fighters is under 1000? How many insurgents are there estimated to be in total?

We have people in this forum making the bold proclamation that the insurgents are increasing in numbers, yet nobody, you included can produce any numbers whatsoever. You frankly admit there's no way to attain those numbers. So how can such a claim be made?

As I said previously, neither side can prove a damn thing thing in regards to the insurgency. They should stop trying because it's ultimately BS no matter how you slice it. Try to pretend there's beef there, but a cursory bite will let you know it actually tastes like chicken.

There are none so blind that they will not see, no matter how much they taste like poultry. :roll:

Heh. My sig is not a reference to myself. Hopefully now you see that.

Originally posted by: Czar
but are those fighting the occupation force in Iraq mostly iraqies or mostly foreign?

That's not answerable beyond venturing a guess.

Besides, the fighters don't concern me as much as those coercing the impressionable to pick up arms. Who are the leaders of the insurgency? Are they receiving aid from foreign interests such as Iran, as Sadr supposedly did? Where is the influence to fight really coming from? Those are the questions that I'm concerned about. Who is actually doing the fighting is inconsequential.

 

[Corn]

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken

Originally posted by: Perknose

Well, it's not like you're going to get the terrorists to sign an affadavit with their home address and phone number, along with their country's equivalent of their social security number and driver's license. What do you think this is, a Bush campaign event? :shocked:

We no longer even enter entire cities. We aren't even in control of large parts of Bahgdad. Your demand for hard numbers is a pie in the sky diversion. But, Sparky, the truth is not only out there, it's right here in this thread.

Why not ask the man George Bush trusts to be in charge of our military in the theatre? His answer is BOLDED in CapnKirk's OP: Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, estimated that the number of foreign fighters in Iraq was below 1,000.

Want more? Why not pay attention to the hard facts that ARE available, like this other bolded part of the OP: "People try to turn this into the mujahedin, jihad war. It's not that," said one U.S. intelligence official. "How many foreign fighters have been captured and processed? Very few."

And what, exactly do you get out of that?

How many Iraqi insurgents have been captured and processed? Most are killed, just like the foreigners.

The estimated number of foreign fighters is under 1000? How many insurgents are there estimated to be in total?

We have people in this forum making the bold proclamation that the insurgents are increasing in numbers, yet nobody, you included can produce any numbers whatsoever. You frankly admit there's no way to attain those numbers. So how can such a claim be made?

As I said previously, neither side can prove a damn thing thing in regards to the insurgency. They should stop trying because it's ultimately BS no matter how you slice it. Try to pretend there's beef there, but a cursory bite will let you know it actually tastes like chicken.

There are none so blind that they will not see, no matter how much they taste like poultry. :roll:

Heh. My sig is not a reference to myself. Hopefully now you see that.

Originally posted by: Czar
but are those fighting the occupation force in Iraq mostly iraqies or mostly foreign?

That's not answerable beyond venturing a guess.

Besides, the fighters don't concern me as much as those coercing the impressionable to pick up arms. Who are the leaders of the insurgency? Are they receiving aid from foreign interests such as Iran, as Sadr supposedly did? Where is the influence to fight really coming from? Those are the questions that I'm concerned about. Who is actually doing the fighting is inconsequential.

[/quote]

You, sir, have poisoned the air here in P&N with this reasoned thinking nonsense. For that you shall be punished severely by the unthinking masses that populate this place............I thank you.

 

[biostud]

The thing is terrorists don't want democracy, so that's why they're fighting. We think democracy is the best, the terrorist think it's a sin so they use whatever they can to stop it.

 

[CaptnKirk]

According to James Krane - The Associated Press:
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Iraq insurgency is far larger than the 5,000 guerrillas previously thought to be at its core, U.S. military officials say, and it's being led by well-armed Iraqi Sunnis angry at being pushed from the power they were accorded under now-deposed President Saddam Hussein.

Although U.S. military analysts disagree over the exact size, dozens of regional cells, often led by tribal sheiks and inspired by Sunni Muslim imams, can call upon part-time fighters to boost forces to as high as 20,000 -- an estimate reflected in the insurgency's continued strength after U.S. forces killed as many as 4,000 in April alone.

And some insurgents are highly specialized -- one Baghdad cell, for instance, has two leaders, one assassin and two groups of bomb-makers.

The developing intelligence picture of the insurgency contrasts with the commonly stated view in the Bush administration that the fighting is fueled by foreign warriors intent on creating an Islamic state. "We're not at the forefront of a jihadist war here," said a U.S. military official in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official and others told The Associated Press that the guerrillas have enough popular support among nationalist Iraqis angered by the presence of U.S. troops that they cannot be militarily defeated.

The military official, who has logged thousands of miles driving around Iraq to meet with insurgents or their representatives, said a skillful Iraqi government could co-opt some of the guerrillas and reconcile with the leaders, instead of fighting them.

Even as Iraqi leaders wrangle over the contentious issue of offering a broad amnesty to guerrilla fighters, the new Iraqi military and intelligence corps have begun gathering and sharing information on the insurgents with the U.S. military, providing a sharper picture of a complex insurgency.

The intelligence boost has allowed U.S. military pilots to bomb suspected insurgent safe houses over the past two weeks, with Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi saying Iraqis supplied information for at least one of those airstrikes. But the better view of the insurgency also contradicts much of the popular wisdom about it.

Estimates of the insurgents' manpower tend to be too low. Last week, a former coalition official said 4,000 to 5,000 Baathists form the core of the insurgency, with other attacks committed by a couple hundred supporters of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and hundreds of other foreign fighters.

Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the figure of 5,000 insurgents "was never more than a wag and is now clearly ridiculous. Part-timers are difficult to count, but almost all insurgent movements depend on cadres that are part-time and that can blend back into the population."

U.S. military analysts disagree over the size of the insurgency, with estimates running as high as 20,000 fighters when part-timers are added. Ahmed Hashim, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, said the higher numbers squared with his findings in a study of the insurgency completed in Iraq.

 

[1EZduzit]

I read some article that after the first 160 days of the war we were losing an average of 1.7 soilders/day but now that average is up to 2 soldiers/day?

Things in Iraq appear to be getting worse, not better.

I'm also of the opinion that who is doing the fighting is important, especially who is doing the dying. Whereever the leadership and money is coming from, they still need people willing to die. Who is willing to fight and die? Without them, their would be no insurgency.

The point being that the people willing to fight and die must have a reason to do so. They are against a democracy because they percieve that they have something to lose. Sounds like Saddam's henchmen/supporters to me.

Mission Accomplished my A$$.

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Estimates of the insurgents' manpower tend to be too low. Last week, a former coalition official said 4,000 to 5,000 Baathists form the core of the insurgency, with other attacks committed by a couple hundred supporters of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and hundreds of other foreign fighters.

Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the figure of 5,000 insurgents "was never more than a wag and is now clearly ridiculous. Part-timers are difficult to count, but almost all insurgent movements depend on cadres that are part-time and that can blend back into the population."

U.S. military analysts disagree over the size of the insurgency, with estimates running as high as 20,000 fighters when part-timers are added. Ahmed Hashim, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, said the higher numbers squared with his findings in a study of the insurgency completed in Iraq.

Capn, you'll never convince Tasteslike without photo id and a short bio for each and every insurgent. Otherwise, nobody can prove anything (and yet he's convinced, I'm sure, that Bush won the 2000 election)!

 

[CaptnKirk]

Testes like Chicken ?

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: Corn
You, sir, have poisoned the air here in P&N with this reasoned thinking nonsense. For that you shall be punished severely by the unthinking masses that populate this place............I thank you.

LOL.

You're welcome

Originally posted by: biostud666
The thing is terrorists don't want democracy, so that's why they're fighting. We think democracy is the best, the terrorist think it's a sin so they use whatever they can to stop it.

The polls taken in Iraq have shown that the Iraqis overwhelmingly support Democracy. What the terrorists think is inconsequential.

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
According to James Krane - The Associated Press:
-------------------------------------------------------------
...snipped article for brevity's sake

Interesting article, but still highly speculative as to the numbers.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: Perknose

Capn, you'll never convince Tasteslike without photo id and a short bio for each and every insurgent. Otherwise, nobody can prove anything (and yet he's convinced, I'm sure, that Bush won the 2000 election)![/quote]
Actually, I voted for Gore. But Bush did win the election. Get over it already. I did.

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Testes like Chicken ?

I bet you're the funniest guy out of all the other 4th graders at your school.

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Testes like Chicken ?

/\ The little known Arabic translation for Chicken McNuggets!

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken

Originally posted by: Perknose

Capn, you'll never convince Tasteslike without photo id and a short bio for each and every insurgent. Otherwise, nobody can prove anything (and yet he's convinced, I'm sure, that Bush won the 2000 election)!

Actually, I voted for Gore. But Bush did win the election. Get over it already. I did.

[/quote]

LOL, sure you did, and your voting for Kerry this election too.

 

[CaptnKirk]

I bet you're the funniest guy out of all the other 4th graders at your school.

You're a bit too thin skinned to take any offense when you use a moniker like that.
(I wanted to type 'Monica' !)

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken

Originally posted by: Perknose

Capn, you'll never convince Tasteslike without photo id and a short bio for each and every insurgent. Otherwise, nobody can prove anything (and yet he's convinced, I'm sure, that Bush won the 2000 election)!

Actually, I voted for Gore. But Bush did win the election. Get over it already. I did.

LOL, sure you did, and your voting for Kerry this election too. [/quote]

Nope. I'm not voting for either of those two this election. I'm voting Independent.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
I bet you're the funniest guy out of all the other 4th graders at your school.

You're a bit too thin skinned to take any offense when you use a moniker like that.
(I wanted to type 'Monica' !)

Considering you probably have no idea as to the reasons why I chose this nick, it would seem you're being rather presumptive.

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
The 'Insurgents'e the local citizens, U.S. Government estimates are that IF
there are Foreign Insurgents, they make up less than 3,000 total in the country.

Oh ok, well as long as it's under 3,000. That's only as big as an American brigade, not to mention that they're using guerilla tactics....

More from the LA Times - Link

Do foreign fighters stick around after they've done what they came to do?

During the war, at least 5,000 foreign fighters came from abroad to aid the regime, Iraqi officials estimate. Many entered through Syria, where buses would fill up in Damascus with Syrians, Palestinians, Jordanians and occasionally Moroccans and Tunisians, according to injured fighters interviewed in Damascus, the Syrian capital, after their return.

As many as 2,000 Muslim fighters from as far as Sudan, Algeria and Afghanistan are operating in Iraq, officials say. Ansar al Islam, an Iraqi group that was previously active in northern Iraq, also has made a comeback, officials say. The Bush administration says Ansar has ties to Al Qaeda.

Although many of the foreign militants likely operate in small cells independent of any central command, others appear to have hooked up with Hussein loyalists who provide money, materiel and logistical support. In exchange, the foreigners provide suicide bombers and experience in guerrilla tactics.

 

[CaptnKirk]

I believe that that archeived historical link has been disproven by the facts by now.
(The link is DEAD, and historical archieve)

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
I believe that that archeived historical link has been disproven by the facts by now.

Do you mean to say that staffers at the LA Times (That's a pretty conservative paper right?) realized the political implications of what they said before?

Anyhow, how many foreigners would be enough for you?

What does the presence of what I think can at least be called a significant volume (starting at 1000, as much as 5000) of foreigners imply?

 

[CaptnKirk]

That's not the point - You put up a DEAD link.

There is no way to find what the content of that DEAD link is unless you post a clip from it,
or at least give a date to find subject matter. How old is/was it.

Who determines Foreigners - Us or Them ?

We are 130,000+ foreigners to their way of life.

 

[Corn]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
That's not the point - You put up a DEAD link.

There is no way to find what the content of that DEAD link is unless you post a clip from it,
or at least give a date to find subject matter. How old is/was it.

Who determines Foreigners - Us or Them ?

We are 130,000+ foreigners to their way of life.

I would assume that a "foreigner" would describe anyone not from Iraq.

Here's the text from article, BTW:

November 9, 2003 Sunday
Home Edition

SECTION: MAIN NEWS; Foreign Desk; Part A; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 2007 words

HEADLINE: Iraq Seen as Al Qaeda's Top Battlefield;
Terrorist network and its affiliates are aiding Hussein loyalists, coalition officials say.

BYLINE: Richard C. Paddock, Alissa J. Rubin and Greg Miller, Times Staff Writers

DATELINE: BAGHDAD

BODY:


Answering Osama bin Laden's call for holy war in Iraq, hundreds of followers from at least eight nations have entered the country and are playing a major role in attacking Western targets and Iraqi civilians, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

Operatives of the Al Qaeda terrorist network and affiliated extremist groups are collaborating with Saddam Hussein loyalists, officials say, forming an array of shadowy alliances that are emerging as one of the biggest challenges to U.S.-led efforts to bring stability to the war-torn country.

Some officials believe that Iraq is replacing Afghanistan as the global center of Islamic jihad and becoming the prime locale for extremist Muslim fighters who are eager to confront Americans on Arab soil.

As many as 2,000 Muslim fighters from as far as Sudan, Algeria and Afghanistan are operating in Iraq, officials say. Ansar al Islam, an Iraqi group that was previously active in northern Iraq, also has made a comeback, officials say. The Bush administration says Ansar has ties to Al Qaeda.

Although many of the foreign militants likely operate in small cells independent of any central command, others appear to have hooked up with Hussein loyalists who provide money, materiel and logistical support. In exchange, the foreigners provide suicide bombers and experience in guerrilla tactics.

While authorities have acknowledged the presence of some of the fighters, the role they are playing in the anti-American insurgency appears to be increasing -- and their unconventional tactics make them a formidable force. Foreign fighters are suspected of taking part in as many as a dozen suicide bombings that have killed more than 200 people in the last three months, including four nearly simultaneous attacks in Baghdad on Oct. 27.

"Since mid-July we have seen the reconstitution of Ansar al Islam and Al Qaeda," L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the U.S.-led civilian administration, said at a briefing of visiting Americans last week. "They are coming back into Iraq."

Jalal Talabani, the current president of Iraq's Governing Council, estimates that 500 to 2,000 Islamic militants from foreign countries are operating in Iraq, including some who may have arrived before the war started. Some officials of the U.S.-led coalition cite the same figure.

The largest group of militants is from neighboring Syria, officials say, while others have come from Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Palestinian territories.

"The big majority of those criminals who are committing terror actions are from Al Qaeda" and associated militant Muslim organizations, Talabani said. "Those who are making suicide attacks are from Islamic fundamentalist groups."

Before the war, President Bush contended that Al Qaeda was active in Iraq. But it was not until several months after the U.S.-led occupation began that Islamic extremists apparently took advantage of the postwar chaos and started launching terrorist attacks.

U.S. officials acknowledge that they are hobbled in their efforts to stem the apparent surge in Islamic extremism because they have little information about the attackers or their activities.

Authorities believe that some of the fighters are Al Qaeda operatives and others are members of extremist groups affiliated with the network. Officials suspect that the groups operate as independent cells but are cooperating to some degree with one another and with Hussein loyalists seeking to regain power.

In September, Bremer told reporters in Washington that 248 foreign fighters had been arrested in Iraq, including 19 suspected Al Qaeda members. It is unclear when the arrests took place.

Bin Laden, who was critical of Hussein while he was in power, has repeatedly called on Muslims to go to Iraq and avenge the U.S. invasion.

"God knows if I could find a way to your field, I wouldn't stall," a voice identified as Bin Laden's said in an audiotape released in mid-October. "You my brother fighters in Iraq ... I tell you: You are God's soldiers and the arrows of Islam, and the first line of defense for this [Muslim] nation today."

It is difficult to gauge the extent of ties between Hussein loyalists and the foreign fighters. Some officials believe that a new alliance between Al Qaeda-trained foreigners and former agents of the Mukhabarat, Hussein's intelligence service, is behind some of the terrorist attacks.

"They are now fully operational and clandestine and working with terrorist groups to start hitting targets," said Iyad Allawi, a member of the Governing Council and its security committee. "They are getting more clever, and we will see more attacks in the weeks ahead."

In the battle against the U.S. presence in Iraq, the foreign fighters bring with them experience as guerrilla warriors who are skilled in reconnaissance and mounting surprise attacks while keeping a low profile.

The Hussein loyalists can offer their knowledge of local targets and the location of caches of weapons that could be used to make bombs. Top Iraqi operatives can contribute cash, much of it stolen shortly before or during the war.

The Iraqi insurgents may also be in contact with sympathizers who work near American or international targets. It appears, for instance, that some of the Iraqis working at the United Nations at the time of the August bombing of its headquarters in Baghdad had worked there during Hussein's regime.

Allawi said recent intelligence indicated that former Mukhabarat agents and Al Qaeda or its affiliates were forming a "field command" that would be responsible for operations against Americans and their supporters.

According to these reports, attacks would increasingly target the Americans and British, the leading members of the coalition that ousted Hussein, he said.

U.S. officials say there are an average of 29 attacks a day on coalition forces, most of them low-level incidents apparently staged by Hussein supporters. Some major attacks also appear to be the work of Hussein loyalists, including the downing of a Chinook helicopter near the town of Fallouja on Nov. 2 that killed 16 people and the shelling of Baghdad's Rashid Hotel on Oct. 26, which killed one and injured at least seven.

But other attacks bear the stamp of Al Qaeda: in particular, suicide car bombings of targets that are carefully selected for maximum psychological effect and to inflict a large number of casualties.

"The goal in hitting these targets is to create chaos, especially in Baghdad," Allawi said.

Authorities were able to establish the role of foreign extremists in the Oct. 27 bombings when police foiled a planned attack on a fourth Baghdad police station.

The would-be suicide bomber rammed a police barricade with his SUV, which was packed with explosives. The vehicle did not explode. When the man jumped out and threw a hand grenade at police, an officer shot and wounded him.

"Iraqis are traitors!" the attacker shouted at police, authorities say. "I am an Arab, you cowards! Allahu akbar [God is great]!"

Initially thought to be a Syrian, the would-be bomber was a Yemeni who entered the country through Syria, authorities say. He is believed to be in U.S. custody. There was no indication what he might have told investigators.

Ahmad Shyaa Barak, a member of the Governing Council who sits on its security committee, said authorities recently arrested another foreign militant who apparently was casing a building in Baghdad.

The man's passport showed that he had been to Afghanistan four times, including a six-month stay during which authorities suspect he attended an Al Qaeda training camp. He was turned over to coalition investigators.

"They captured him on the street," Barak said. "People were suspicious of him. He had a camera, and he was trying to take photos of a building that was a possible target."

In the last three months, Iraq has seen 13 vehicle bomb attacks. Most of them were suicide bombings, authorities say. The targets have included one of Iraq's holiest Shiite Muslim shrines, police stations, U.N. offices, U.S. facilities and the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Most of the victims have been Iraqis.

Iraqi officials say the willingness to commit suicide and to target civilians are uncharacteristic of attacks by Hussein loyalists but are a common tactic for Islamic terrorists.

U.S. and Iraqi authorities as well as former agents of the Mukhabarat suspect that Islamic terrorists were involved in the deadliest attacks: the Aug. 19 car bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people; the Aug. 29 bombing of the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf that killed 120 people; the Oct. 12 bombing of the Baghdad Hotel that killed seven people; and the Oct. 27 attacks on the police stations and Red Cross that killed at least 35 people.

Two of the attacks may have been intended as assassinations of widely respected leaders who could have played a key role in stabilizing and reconstructing Iraq: the esteemed Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr Hakim, who was killed in the Najaf bombing; and U.N. Special Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello, a strong advocate of handing over power to a new Iraqi government, who was killed in the U.N. headquarters blast.

Some officials fear that a growing Islamist movement in Iraq could give a boost to the extremist cause and train a new core of Muslim fighters, just as the war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union did in the 1980s.

A senior U.S. intelligence official in Washington said Iraq has emerged as the focal point for Islamic jihad, becoming the most active front in the movement and the top priority for Muslim fighters who want to confront the United States.

The assessment, shared by analysts at the CIA and other agencies, underscores how in a matter of months Iraq has supplanted Afghanistan, Chechnya and other international trouble spots as the focus of the jihad cause.

"The fact that the U.S. military is there in force, that this is a core Arab state, that [the U.S. occupation] has been the biggest issue in world affairs in the last few months all add up to it being a highly important, highly active place" for jihadis, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iraq is a top priority for jihadis in the Arab world, who have chafed at the presence of American troops in places such as Saudi Arabia for years but now confront the U.S. occupation of a nation in the heart of their region.

Asked whether Iraq was now the primary destination for Islamic fighters, the official said: "Far and away, no question about it."

He added that Iraq had earned that distinction because of its "size, prominence, importance and number of Americans to shoot at."

Although many in the West have been skeptical of Bush's contention that there was an alliance between Hussein and Islamic extremists, members of the Governing Council say the dictator began reaching out to the militants more than two years ago.

Before the war, hundreds of Ansar al Islam militants were trained at camps in northern Iraq and hundreds of foreign fighters were trained at camps outside Baghdad, said Talabani, the Governing Council president.

The Mukhabarat began forging ties with Arab extremists in 2001, Allawi said.

During the war, at least 5,000 foreign fighters came from abroad to aid the regime, Iraqi officials estimate. Many entered through Syria, where buses would fill up in Damascus with Syrians, Palestinians, Jordanians and occasionally Moroccans and Tunisians, according to injured fighters interviewed in Damascus, the Syrian capital, after their return. There is no estimate of how many fighters stayed behind after the war ended.

With the U.S. occupation, Iraq no longer had border guards, creating opportunities for militants to enter. The crossings opened up, and people streamed freely into Iraq.

"I'm afraid to say, it is going to get worse before it gets better," Allawi said. "They are an evil group. They are looking at Iraq as their haven and as the staging post to hit at every decent and civilized target."

Paddock and Rubin reported from Baghdad, and Miller from Washington.

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
That's not the point - You put up a DEAD link.

There is no way to find what the content of that DEAD link is unless you post a clip from it,
or at least give a date to find subject matter. How old is/was it.

Who determines Foreigners - Us or Them ?

We are 130,000+ foreigners to their way of life.

The point of the thread wouldn't be news if foreign fighters in Iraq didn't imply something. What does 1,000 to 5,000 foreigners in Iraq mean?

 

[CaptnKirk]

Still trying to figure out what the relevance to your link is.
here's the link as posted as to reinforce your point:

Error


Sorry, the page you requested is not available.


Please use the site map or do a site search
(using the box at the top left of this page)
to find current latimes.com content.
Or,
visit our home page for the latest news and information.
Or,
search our Archives for previously published stories.


If you have information that shows more than the 'Approximately' 1,000 as released by our own
US Government Inteligence Agency report, and briefed by the General overseeing the Theatre
that indicates that 'Foriegn' intervention can sustain 5,000 insergents, I would think that the CIA would like to know -
If a Archive from the LA Times supports that figure, then the CIA must already know.

Either way, it does not appear to me that our own Government is willing to be forthcoming with any
information or data released to the public that is anything except scripted lockstep rhetoric.

They're lost, they know it, and don't know how to weasle their way out of their nightmare.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Still trying to figure out what the relevance to your link is.
here's the link as posted as to reinforce your point:

Error


Sorry, the page you requested is not available.


Please use the site map or do a site search
(using the box at the top left of this page)
to find current latimes.com content.
Or,
visit our home page for the latest news and information.
Or,
search our Archives for previously published stories.

Clicking the link brings up the LA Times registration/login page for me.

:shrug:

 

[b0mbrman]

So what does the presence of "'approximately' 1,000" foreigners mean and how many would be "enough" for you?