WP: Twofold Operation Seals Sadr City (Troops Seek U.S. Soldier, Militiaman)

[Pirate Smile]

Twofold Operation Seals Sadr City
Troops Seek U.S. Soldier, Militiaman

By John Ward Anderson and Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, October 30, 2006; Page A12

BAGHDAD, Oct. 29 -- American military police backed by Iraqi troops maintained their cordon of Baghdad's Sadr City on Sunday, manning barricades and checkpoints in and around the Shiite slum in an operation to find a kidnapped U.S. soldier and to capture the man considered Iraq's most notorious death squad leader.

The soldier, an Iraqi American translator whose name has not been released, has been missing for six days. He was abducted by armed men while making an unauthorized visit to see relatives in the Karrada neighborhood of central Baghdad last Monday.

U.S. forces have effectively sealed off Sadr City and its 2.5 million residents from the rest of Baghdad, and within Sadr City, they have isolated the neighborhood around the home of alleged death squad leader Abu Deraa, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official who would not be named because he was not authorized to release the information.

U.S. officials have refused to comment on whether they believe that Abu Deraa is holding the missing soldier, and it was unclear whether the two goals of the U.S. operation -- finding the soldier and capturing Abu Deraa -- are in fact related.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/29/AR2006102900562.html

[keopeli]

1. This could be a real "October Surprise"...

...stay tuned. This is an important week.

Possible scanrios:

US finds and rescues soldier, captures Abu Deraa.

US does not find soldier in the next week, fails to detain Abu Deraa.

US detains Abu Deraa, blames him for soldier's disappearance, but can't produce soldier's wherabouts.

US finds soldier post mortem, captures Abu Deraa and blames him for soldier's death.

US is shown video of captured soldier being held for ransom.

US is shown video of captured soldier being executed.

--

Only one of these possibilities can even be spun as a positive for Bush.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. This has nothing to do with any October Surprise

This has to do with only having a hammer, and therefore seeing everything as a nail. The US military in Iraq is completely devoid of ideas, so they continue to spin deeper and deeper into the pit.

[bemildred]

2. "We have you surrounded. Come out with your hands up!". nt

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Oh please...who the fuck is Abu Deraa?

Some new benchmark bogeyman now that the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi didn't do jack shit?

And they've sealed off Sadr City? Yes, this is likely to lead to good results in counter-insurgency - essentially telling 2.5 million people that they are in prison while foreign military roams their streets. Good fucking idea there, geniuses. Way to pinpoint the fucking enemy.

Oh fucking wow, man. The shitbird planners who come up with these clusterfucks should win a medal. They seem to do the impossible every week: make the seemingly worst situation even worse.

[wellst0nev0ter]

5. They Already Have A Medal For Being Fuckups.

The Medal of Freedom.