"Baghdad Defense Plan"
by unknown artist
pen on scratchpaper
2002/2003
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March 3, 2006
“Baghdad Defense Plan”
Comments
Context:
Two German intelligence agents in Baghdad obtained a copy of Saddam Hussein’s plan to defend the Iraqi capital, which a German official passed on to American commanders a month before the invasion, according to a classified study by the United States military.
NYT: German Intelligence Gave U.S. Iraqi Defense Plan, Report Says
[M]any people here were also saying today that the American government would also be eager to put out information showing that Germany had provided help in the American invasion.
"We also have to ask who gains from the reports coming out of Washington," Renate Künast, a leader of the opposition Green party, said in a telephone interview today. "What are their interests? They might be very conservative people who maybe want to discredit the former German government. It is hard to say."
NYT: Germany Disputes News Report on Its Pre-War Iraq Role
There is a big flap here in Germany over claims that the German Intelligence Services supported the US with information. The point is that Gerhard Schröder, then-chancellor of Germany, openly opposed the war but still allowed the US to use German air bases for logistical support. In for a penny, in for a pound.
I am reminded of the anecdote about the fellow who asked a woman if she would sleep with him for a million dollars. “Yes,” she responded.
“Would you sleep with me for five dollars?” he then asked.
“What kid of woman do you take me for?” she queried.
“We’ve already established that, I’m just negotiating a price!”
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 3 2006 13:49 utc | 2
That sketch is completely worthless and bogus. Where are the roads, geographical points of reference, rivers?
You can fool most ofthe people most of the time.
@malooga – that’s the point.
It is a piece of art(ificial) “intelligence”.
(beq and anna missed may excuse. Their art IS superior.)
The Frankfurt paper has been running all sorts of articles on the possible provenance of this snail-shaped sketch: one theory is that is an ancient map with the captions & legends simply changed.
And besides, where is the circle & arrow and the notice “Bomben und Raketen hier!”?
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 3 2006 16:26 utc | 5
IMO the US is interested in weakening the foreign minister (SDP) and the Greens. They may have the idea that Merkel, without the influence of the pesky SPD, will help them as much as Germany did in Gulf War I, when Germany shouldered rather a large part of the cost of the war.
Posted by: mrm | Mar 3 2006 16:57 utc | 6
The whole story with leaks from the U.S. about alleged German secret support for the Iraq war started just after this:
Rice ‘to talk tough on CIA claim’
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to go on the offensive over EU concerns that the US has operated secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.
According to media reports in both the US and UK, Ms Rice will tell European allies to “back off” over the issue.
…
According to the daily, Ms Rice will insist that intelligence co-operation between the US and Europe is necessary to prevent future terror attacks and call upon European governments to do more to emphasise this to their citizens.
“The key point will be ‘We’re all in this together and you need to look at yourselves as much as us,’ ” one official said to the Washington Post, on condition of anonymity. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
That “warning” (i.e. threat) was ignored and now the defamation machine has running its course. Each time the story dies down in Germany some U.S. paper is leaked that provides additional fudder for the issue.
Interesting operation. Think how this will be percieved longterm.
Hey, it’s all about expanding the ‘Meme’
in Concentric Spirals, just as You see
here. Truth is the Enemy. Controlling the
Media is 1st-Defense. Then, it’s Expanding
a Meme is Their Counter-Attack. If Truth
is Hitler at Stalingrad, and Killing-Cold
is the Deaf-Dumb-and-Blind Three Monkeys
of Main-Stream Media, the Real Strategic
Campaign of US Neo Soviets is Art of Meme,
by Lao Rove. Spoke with Very Intelligent
person in World Circles today, who shook
his virtual Head and said, “Those Crazy
Islamics … imagine Blowing up their own
Mosques over some Cartoon.” Truth’s attack
on Stalingrad has Ground to a Halt. It’s
it’s only a Matter of Time before the Neo
Soviets Counter-Attack crushes All of US,
despite Howard Dean’s tough words Today.
They are Expostulating False-Flag Topology,
a Dark Shroud of Turin, while we Beat our
collective Tom-Tom’s like poor Aboriginals.
We’ll all get to Die with Truth on our Lips,
poisoned Purple by Their Corruption of Meme.
Last Night I saw Death, Waiting by a Graveyard.
His Shroud was Silken Blue-Black, Shimmering
in the Moonlight, his Face Black Velvet, and
He held this Spiral-Twisted Applewood Walking
Stick, Bent over in an L, Beside the Stones.
Thank G-d He didn’t Point Towards US … Yet.
Posted by: Carrie Underwood | Mar 3 2006 18:08 utc | 8
I liked that little arty sketch.
The model is today’s Israel. Baghdad, the Green Zone, connected by safe roads, to Bases, to Out Posts, here and there. A master’s overlay on chaotic territory, the jungle, the land of the natives, mad, rabid, poor, religious, fractious, filled with hate, racists, ethnic quarels, no respect for women – rabble – non humans.
ignore it, drive on. we’ll get to base like in fifteen minutes. cold beer and philippina girls. these guys are weird man. i could tell you some stories. lost my buddy. (weeps.) watch out, there’s a fucking donkey. but this road is blocked for iraqis. what the fuck?
A puppet Gvmt. is a necessary part of the picture. They are, or will be, paid flunkeys, posturing in front of the mikes about Al Quaida destroying holy places. They will spend 8 months of the year in London, on the wharf perhaps, occasional guests at some Bash of Cherie Blair’s. Looked down upon, oh so superciliously.
Iraq is already food dependent. The US in Iraq is already buying rice – from the US to send to Iraq.
Posted by: Noisette | Mar 3 2006 21:00 utc | 9
The English side at Der Spiegel Online reckons that Germans are brewing up a conspiracy theory:
…In other words, a good German conspiracy theory requires an assumption that America is up to no good — and it needs a credible motive. And the new theory making the Berlin rounds has all that. America, according to this newest suspicion of US trickery, wants to avenge the anti-war stance of the Schröderites.
The new theory is perfect in many other ways, too. For those promoting it, the conspiracy theory makes Germany seem like the center of the geo-political universe. In their minds, those stalking the halls of power in Washington clearly have nothing better to do than to plot how best to orchestrate a Waterloo in Berlin. By that reading, Germany’s grappling with the activities of its intelligence services in Baghdad must be front page news around the world.
The reality is much more mundane, of course. Few outside Berlin and CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia care much about the German intelligence controversy. And Michael R. Gordon, the Times reporter who broke the latest story, based his allegations on a 2005 Joint Forces Command study he obtained long ago. The US government didn’t just suddenly hand it to him over the weekend. It’s also highly doubtful that some government hack phoned up Gordon to request that he please run the report on Monday.
In any case, why would the US be interested in harming Chancellor Merkel at a time when US-German relations finally seem to be on the up and up again? Oh, but the timing of the reports! Always hitting the headlines just when Chancellor Merkel or Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier were meeting with their American counterparts! Right.
Germany these days is interested in playing a larger role on the international stage. It has troops in a number of hotspots around the world and Congo may soon be next. Post-war Germany, the message seems to be, has matured — it has grown up. But has it? Believing the worst of the ultra-powerful United States is, of course, an amusing pastime enjoyed by many countries. But politicians and the media know better. Germany, it seems, still has some growing up to do. …
Some people can’t see the forest for the trees, and some of those people seem to work for the Spiegel.
Posted by: Feelgood | Mar 4 2006 16:54 utc | 11
This thing about german intelligence sharing with the US is probably coming from Merkel’s camp. I have noticed a lot of bellicose talk toward Iran coming from the new government and this “leaking” could just be a way to convince the german public that they (Christian Democrats) are not doing any more than the old socialist government did.
Posted by: dan of steele | Mar 4 2006 19:34 utc | 12
Now we have reports of aerial photos that indicate that none of the “targets” for which German intelligence supplied co-ordinates were ever bombed!
Maybe they jut dropped loads of cockroaches on them…
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 6 2006 7:20 utc | 13
A really smart guy, editor for Deutsche Welle TV, has found out that the satelite pictures were made a few weeks after the bombings. So, he said in yesterdays news show “Journal” on DW-tv, “the buildings might have been rebuild before the pics were taken” 🙂
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 7 2006 12:13 utc | 14
…and it could’vbe been that the building never existed in the first place but were simply inflatable tents.
Time to get John Irving to research these theories.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 7 2006 15:41 utc | 15