wtf? US Forces Raid Iraq Health Ministry and Steal Cash?

[leftchick]

what the hell? Any ideas what this is about.....



Iraqis carry banners during an anti-American rally in front of the Health Ministry in Baghdad. Health ministry officials accused US and Iraqi troops of storming their offices over night, arresting seven bodyguards and taking Iraqi dinars worth 34,000 dollars.(AFP/Karim Sahib )



Private security guards attached to the Iraqi Heath minister, demonstrate outside the Health ministry office against the arrest of their colleagues, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday Aug. 13, 2006. Iraq's health minister Ali al-Shemari, who is aligned to a powerful Shiite militia, claimed Sunday that U.S. forces arrested seven of his personal guards in a surprise pre-dawn raid on his office. The reason for the alleged arrests was unclear. U.S. officials did not immediately confirm or respond to the allegation. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

[Kagemusha]

1. Just more crackdowns on anyone associated with al-Sadr/ Mahdi

Nothing to see, move along.

[katinmn]

2. Who the hell knows what is going on in Iraq anymore.

What a mess!

[uppityperson]

3. I like your sig line.

[katinmn]

4. Thanks.

:-)

[raysr]

5. Support the thugs, I mean troops.

They're robbing banks here in WA St.

[countryjake]

6. Have you seen anything posted about that?

Those army rangers are certainly receiving some odd training these days, eh?

[earth mom]

7. You must mean the THUGS in D.C. robbing the U.S. treasury. eom

[countryjake]

8. No, he's referring to this...

3 Rangers charged in Tacoma bank heist
The Seattle Times Friday, August 11, 2006
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=rangers11m&date=20060811&query=3+Rangers+charged+in+Tacoma+bank+heist

~snip~

The robbers apparently knew what they were doing.

As one kept track of the time, counting down the minutes, the others brandished automatic weapons to rob the tellers. All wore masks and what appeared to be body armor under their clothing.

When they were done — in under 2 ½ minutes — the men had made off with $54,000 from a Tacoma branch of Bank of America on Monday.

Viewing surveillance video of the robbery, an FBI agent would later note it was an "extremely well organized and executed robbery that was carried out with military-style precision and planning."

[pizzed]

9. could be a clue here to LOTS of 'strange' stuff...

...including, and in my opinion ESPECIALLY, the "civil war" because :evilfrown: Guess-Who wants so badly to keep war going as an excuse to have permanent super-military bases all over the world, and because "de-population" is another hidden agenda of the PNAC's. .... http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29414-2005Jan22?language=printer

READ THIS VERY CAREFULLY!!

Secret Unit Expands Rumsfeld's Domain
New Espionage Branch Delving Into CIA Territory
By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 23, 2005; Page A01


The Pentagon, expanding into the CIA's historic bailiwick, has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad, according to interviews with participants and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic Support Branch, arose from Rumsfeld's written order to end his "near total dependence on CIA" for what is known as human intelligence. Designed to operate without detection and under the defense secretary's direct control, the Strategic Support Branch deploys small teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists alongside newly empowered special operations forces.

Military and civilian participants said in interviews that the new unit has been operating in secret for two years -- in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places they declined to name. According to an early planning memorandum to Rumsfeld from Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the focus of the intelligence initiative is on "emerging target countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia, Philippines and Georgia." Myers and his staff declined to be interviewed.

The Strategic Support Branch was created to provide Rumsfeld with independent tools for the "full spectrum of humint operations," according to an internal account of its origin and mission. Human intelligence operations, a term used in counterpoint to technical means such as satellite photography, range from interrogation of prisoners and scouting of targets in wartime to the peacetime recruitment of foreign spies. A recent Pentagon memo states that recruited agents may include "notorious figures" whose links to the U.S. government would be embarrassing if disclosed.

Perhaps the most significant shift is the Defense Department's bid to conduct surreptitious missions, in friendly and unfriendly states, when conventional war is a distant or unlikely prospect -- activities that have traditionally been the province of the CIA's Directorate of Operations. Senior Rumsfeld advisers said those missions are central to what they called the department's predominant role in combating terrorist threats.

The Pentagon has a vast bureaucracy devoted to gathering and analyzing intelligence, often in concert with the CIA, and news reports over more than a year have described Rumsfeld's drive for more and better human intelligence. But the creation of the espionage branch, the scope of its clandestine operations and the breadth of Rumsfeld's asserted legal authority have not been detailed publicly before. Two longtime members of the House Intelligence Committee, a Democrat and a Republican, said they knew no details before being interviewed for this article.

More at link...

Researcher Rob Thomason contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company

NOW does it make more sence about a LOT of things? Also explains why so many GOOD Career CIA men have left the Agency, doesn't it!?

---------------------------------------------
EDIT: COPYRIGHT. PLEASE POST ONLY 4 OR 5
PARAGRAPHS FROM THE COPYRIGHTED NEWS SOURCE
PER DU RULES.