Silflay Hraka

Back to the Basics

Ok, I’m done. I hope I’ve left you enough reading.

Johnnie, get your gun, we’re going over there.

Ithaca College coeds, ripe for terror sex.

Nice pic of the USS Curtis Wilber.

More photo comparison on the Corrie death, and a list of the differing accounts of what happened.

CNN – Well, he’s not dead yet. You know that as well as me, I would think. Unless that’s a double, or he’s prerecorded that speech once for each day of the month. References to Jihad and Palestine, so he’s trying to whip up the arab street.

Iraq’s 51st mechanised division and the 11th infantry, “set to surrender“?

USS Donald Cook, launching Tomahawks

Slate has a live report from Baghdad.
At exactly 4:31 a.m., I saw the first strike. An oil refinery on the banks of the River Tigris blew up, throwing up huge flames that have since turned to pillars of smoke. The oil refinery, which looks destroyed, is about 1 kilometer from the hotel where I’m staying.
……….
The Iraqi government has started turning on the 200-odd foreign journalists who remain here. German and Austrian TV crews were expelled yesterday, and a number of people, including Russian reporters, have been arrested for illegal use of satellite phones.

1000 members of the N.C. basaed 82nd airborne are rading villages in Afghanistan, looking for al-Qaida .

MSNBC – Brian Williams is hiccuping like mad

Dick Cheney called South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun specifically to tell him that war was breaking out. Are we expecting something?
Update: Yes. South Korea elevates alert against North Korea amid war in Iraq

CNN 11:48 pm – Ground forces “the huge land armada” not to move for at least the next 12 hours. Armada? Not a particulary apt choice of term. And, if they do hold for 12 or more hours, not like Panama at all.

A little song

Airplanes we have heard on high.
Bombs are falling from the sky!
Look! there drops one overhead.
Pray it lands in Saddam’s bed.

The FBI asks that state and local law enforcement agencies watch for suspicious activity by Iraqi diplomatic vehicles, which are apparently free to roam the country at will.

Baghdad is leaking people. Also, nice explosion pic

Asian Muslims wake up, find urine on cornflakes.

A list of others blogging now, over at Vodkapundit.

CNN – Iraqi TV is saying that Sadaam will address the Iraqi people soon. That’s right, give us another shot at him.

Another satisfied buyer of the First Iraq, Then France bumper sticker.

One target in Baghdad hit “three to four times”

William Saletan is not doing a very good job at blogging the war, if you ask me. I may stop checking him in another couple of hours.

Iraqi Kurdish militia fighters stand guard as they listen to the radio during the last moment of the President Bush.

MSNBC – Saddam Hussein was the target of the cruise missile attack. F117 dropping a Bunker Buster. Be dead. Be dead. Be dead. Be dead. Be dead.

Photo of surrendering Iraqis.

Raed – there is still nothing happening im baghdad we can only hear distant expolsions and there still is no all clear siren. someone in the BBC said that the state radio has been overtaken by US broadcast, that didn’t happen the 3 state broadcasters still operate. So this article is wrong, apparently

More than one “target of opportunity” was attacked, reports CNN. Sounds like very refined command and control strikes.
MSNBC – British military officials were “stunned” at the action.
Caveat: Much of what we will hear today will be wrong.

Columbia’s Destruction May Be Tied to Mystery Object
IMHO: Too much junk in space made them dismiss information that could have saved the crew.

Star Dies in Giant Gamma Ray Burst

Raed in Baghdad is still connected. Yes, I’ve gone to the Robot Wisdom blogstyle for a while. Much more into an information gathering mode than is my normal habit. Regular functioning will resume soon, I hope.

N.Korea fires surface-to-ship cruise missile

Cliche Count = 1

We’re attacking at…dawn?

Maybe shock and awe are more more impressive in the daytime.

Cnn is reporting an cruise missile attack on a Baghdad “target of opportunity.” I wonder who.

Fired from a Predator?

Update: Cnn says it was a “decapitation” strike, via cruise missiles fired by stealth fighters, targeting a building “known to be” a leadership location.

War Lynx

Anti-War Protestor numbers take a dive.

Britain’s Foreign Office has issued a global terror warning.

Prepared for terrorism in Washington, as long as we don’t have to move.

Saddam may disguise himself as a woman in order to escape U.S. forces. Here’s a computer generated image of what he should look like.

Israel citizens have been ordered to carry gas masks with them at all times. Check Imshin, Expat Egghead, Tal G and Israpundit for local updates.

So much for dark of the moon.

If CNN loses its Baghdad feed, this will be why.

Christians in Pakistan are asking for government protection in case of war.

“Saddam Hussein has given his military commanders the authority to use chemical weapons without further directives from Baghdad”

Mass desertions along the northern border.

Anti-war clergymen: Pissing into the wind.

A history of the Daisy Cutter.

Logistics officers are afraid that U.S. forces are going to outrun their fuel supplies.

Sudanese volunteers for Iraq standing guard in Baghdad.

Combat pilots on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt have been ordered to sleep in today, so they can work tonight.

The British logistics landing ship Sir Bedivere and the minehunter USS Ardent faced off against a Iraqi vessel last night.

Night has fallen in Baghdad. You can check the time here.

Odds are that Australian troops are taking part in the rumored fight around Basra. The article hints of an official attack taking place around 8pm est. The Prime Minister of Australia is scheduled to address that nation about an hour after that.

390 Iraqi POWs have been released by Iran. No word on how pissed off they are at the timing.

Satellite Sandstorm Picture

The war may be delayed, as the Canadian Natural Resources Minister isn’t on board yet. Canadian businesses are not amused with their government’s position.

Iraq is thought to be planning chemical attacks on Iraqi civilians in order to blame their deaths on the coalition forces.

Iraq has deployed its most sophisticated cruise missile defense in Baghdad.

The fighting in Basra may be in the leading edge of an amphibious assault, involving trops from the Special Boat Service. Other troops are driving on the old Iraqi naval base at Umm Qasr. Lots of other info here.

British troops taking up “forward battle positions” were ordered to switch off satellite phones and allied warplanes bombed targets in Iraq after coming under fire in the no-fly zone.
…………..
The first flight of B52s were expected to take off two hours before sunset to give them enough flying time to identify their targets and drop their first devastating payload before heading for home.

Iraqi Troops have started to defect, and there was a naval clash outside of Basra last night.

The President has determined that
(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (A) adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq nor (B) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and

(2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.

Iraqi Helicopters have attacked Kurdish villages outside of Kirkuk

The Delta Force has been ordered to capture or kill Saddam Hussein

Stories are starting to come in thick and fast. I’ll add them as I can. New links will appear at the top.

Some links in this post via:
Instapundit
Rantburg

Go Easy, Step Lightly. Stay Free.

Where is Raed, blogging from Iraq.

It is even too late for last minute things to buy, there are too few shops open. We went again for a drive thru Baghdad?s main streets. Too depressing. I have never seen Baghdad like this. Today the Ba?ath party people started taking their places in the trenches and main squares and intersections, fully armed and freshly shaven. They looked too clean and well groomed to defend anything. And the most shocking thing was the number of kids. They couldn?t be older than 20, sitting in trenches sipping Miranda fizzy drinks and eating chocolate (that was at the end of our street) other places you would see them sitting bored in the sun. more cars with guns and loads of Kalashnikovs everywhere.

If you remember I told you a while ago that you can get 14 satellite channels sanctioned by the state, retransmitted and decoded by receivers you have to buy from a state company. This service has been suspended. Internet will follow I am sure.

An Offer He Shouldn’t Refuse

It shouldn’t matter if it is Bahrain or South Central Los Angeles. At this point the important word in this offer is SAFE exile. Hey motherfucker, take what is behind door number 3 and get the hell out while you still can!!!

Email Frenzy – Supporting The U.S.

Typically, unless the email comes from a good friend whose choice of emails to forward I can trust, I delete a good deal of forwarded mail. I just got this one as I am sure many of you have or soon will. It was somewhat interesting so I decided to post it here. It supposedly comes from an English journalist, and is reportedly found in the Daily Mirror. The email read as follows:

Just a word of background for those of you who aren’t familiar with the UK’s Daily Mirror. This is a notoriously left-wing daily that is normally not supportive of the Colonials across the Atlantic.

No, do more than remember. Never forget.

The Hraka Advantage

The mainstream media discovers what we knew yesterday.

This week’s Carnival of the Vanities is at Wylie Blog.

Upcoming Carnival stops include;

March 26th Dancing with Dogs
April 2nd Go Fish
April 9th Solonor’s Ink Well
April 16th Billegible
April 23th The Kitchen Cabinet
April 30th Clubbeaux
May 7th Common Sense and Wonder
May 14th The Inscrutable American
May 21st Cut On The Bias
May 28th Dean’s World

If you’d like to host the Carnival, drop us a line. Information on how to join the Carnival can be found here.

One From Clover

Hello, stranger. You look….Hungry.

If you eat my Fluffy Mackerel Pudding, then I’ll partake of your Frankfurter Spectacular.

The rest can be seen here.

Zod: Spectacular Spectacular!
The words of no vernacular
Can describe this great event.
You’ll be dumb with wonderment.
Rewards are fixed at ten percent.
You must agree that’s excellent.

You have got to stop singing that. What is it with you and gaudy costume musicals?

Societal Hacks: We Do It So You Don’t Have To

If you’d like to read the LA Times article on blogging and war, but don’t want to go through the horribly complicated registration page, use this account:

name: guest23
password: guest23

Whenever you’re confronted with one of these annoying sign in pages, try the guest/guest combination. It works far more often than you would think. E-mail me any open account/password combinations for sites like that of the Times that you know of, or drop them into the comments, and I’ll add them as they show up.