THOSE ARE NOT SADDAMS SONS

There is even a mobile phone service in iraq, set up by bahrein, so they probably have access to the internet as well.

I guess we assume that is a complete backwards society who still run from town to town to spread news.

I've been in the United States Air Force for nearly 2 years. I left for basic training a week after the 9/11 attack.
I went to tech school as an Air Traffic Controller and in January of 2003, I was tasked to go to the Middle East to do TCN Escort duty.
We are allowed email access, on .af.mil accounts. We are allowed 2 15 minute "morale" calls on the DSN lines, which are provided by the US Military. We dial DSN line to a military facility in CONUS (Continental United States) and from there the base operator transfers us to an outside line.
Aside from DSN, we have access to ATT phones for our use, provided we have a phone card. Using the phone card, we can call anyone in CONUS.
We are allowed limited access to the internet. Some sites are filtered and blocked, some sites are not. This isn't because the military wants to prevent us from surfing the net, but because we have an agreement with muslim law to observe a certain degree of censorship.
AOL, YAHOO, HOTMAIL, and other internet email providers are restricted because of this censorship agreement. The British may or may not have the same agreement, but then again, what the British do is none of our concern.
We don't have access to alcohol where I am at, but certain places in the middle east allow it. In Iraq, there are "cantinas" on military bases that allow airmen to drink, but soldiers are not yet allowed that privilege.
I am leaving the middle east in a few days and I have been ROD'd (Relieved of Duty) until then. My sole responsibilities as of now are to outprocess and relax. On top of that, we don't work 24 hours a day, so we do have ample time to get online when we can.
Soldiers in battle situations might find it hard to do so because their living conditions are a little more strenuous than mine.
Maybe I should turn GoldenSun in and his friend, but frankly I don't care enough to stay longer in the Middle East just to carry out an investigation into this matter. I have been here a little longer than I wanted to and I just want to go home.
If another military member observes this post, I will leave it up to them to do something about it. In the meantime, I am going to do what I can so I can enjoy a nice cold beer.
Maybe I'm just another kid making up a story about being in the Air Force, or maybe I really am in the Air Force. Who cares??? I know the truth, what does it matter if you believe me or not???

That's my take

ABB

Just as an appendum to the above post, Someone asked the mods to trace his ip address, and I did a couple of days ago, waiting to see if it was appropriate to let people know here.

His IP comes from a military base - its a military assigned IP - in the United States, I don't think its important where - although I know. So that would tie in with the private line to the US then public from there on, which is what I had suspected initially.

Netchicken.
Now the true question is the IP address of this so called "army friend" in Iraq. I would love to trace that and see where in Iraq it traces to.
I may be mistaken but the only internet access in Iraq is satellite provided. Would that not stop the trace one hop after the sat.? I'm no expert so I could be wrong.
Furthermore, I have a friend on a carrier and he does have access to a Yahoo account but ONLY when ashore. Otherwise his only communication comes from the @navy.mil account so I think the Yahoo thing is a bit fishy to say the least. As a matter of fact now that I think about it, I received an edited email from him during the Afghanistan thing and it had a footnote that said something like "screened/edited by USN(something?)"
I thought it was kind of wierd but it really does make sense.

Originally posted by Fry2
Furthermore, I have a friend on a carrier and he does have access to a Yahoo account but ONLY when ashore. Otherwise his only communication comes from the @navy.mil account so I think the Yahoo thing is a bit fishy to say the least.

How can you then explain AgentBlueBook being able to post at ATS in the middle east? ATS being conspiracy forums.

Do you believe it's because he is in the Air Force?

If you have access to the internet and can visit sites like ATS Yahoo shouldn't be a problem at-all.

As for the military sniffing through everyone's email, well, no. This would take too many man hours, would be an invasion of privacy and basically a waste of time. If they had a certain suspicion of someone fine. But as for everyone, no. I'm sure it's much easier than you all think for making your way around the net if you have the uplink.

[Edited on 27-7-2003 by Total Enslavement]

NC

Thanks, great effort.

Fry

You can't trace the alleged Iraqi IP #.

The email was said to be received by an ATS member who communicated the contents.

magestica

I enjoyed reading all your posts on this and your comments are valid and show your obviously correct experience.

BUT

* lines of command do not control every behaviour - drinking and drugs, use of prostitutes, gambling, many other things while off duty

* Iraq is not an underdeveloped country and there are many local and private resources that would be available to the broken-spirited or angry, for communications. More accessible in some places than safe water or town-provided electricity, for example.

Much of the credibility of many of the posts here has been called into question, along with all the spin and deceit of the Bush administration.

Your comments are really valuable.

But I would never support deletion of this thread. It would be contrary to the principles espoused by ATS.

Lets all do a "group hug".......and be done with it shall we?

regards
seekerof

Originally posted by Seekerof
Lets all do a "group hug".......and be done with it shall we?

regards
seekerof

*dressing up in spikes*

Ok, lets do this.

Originally posted by FreeMason
Mmmhmmm, like the Army is really going to let one of their soldiers contact you and tell you their "big secret".

A little thing called censorship....

censorship? *slaps freemason* i dont think so. its called compromising security. my dad still cant tell me some of the stuff he knows from his air focre career. not to mention that our boys had to keep their mouth shut about goings on way before this war. hell go all the way back to probally WWI.

The individual act of obedience is the cornerstone of authority.

Perhaps this story ought to be countered as well: is it possible or just the other lane of the propaganda superhighway? (thanks to Toltec for this term)

What are the general rates of desertion when servicemen no longer want in on the campaign?????


Sunday, July 27 2003 @ 11:57 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Contributed by: Admin
Views: 5478
BAGHDAD, July 27 - U.S. soldiers in Iraq are escaping from Iraq under the guise of Kurdish citizens, wearing the famous Iraqi and Arab al-Dashdasha (loose headdress) which has become mush sought-after recently, Iraqis told IslamOnline.net Sunday, July 27.

However, a U.S. colonel categorically denied that 2,500 U.S. soldiers have escaped from duty so far, noting that it was a rumor propagated by the Baathists and the loyalists to ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Saeed al-Aidany, a galabia (gown) seller, said, "We were surprised at the very beginning to see a lot of U.S. soldiers buying al-Dashdasha, but it came to our knowledge that they used it as a camouflage to make their escape to Gulf states".

Aidany further claimed that U.S. soldiers were also seen buying Kurdish costumes to make their way to Turkey through northern Iraq.

Abdul Amir al-Hasnawi, a truck driver, alleged he helped two U.S. soldiers escape to Kuwait.

"Two Black U.S. soldiers arrived in Basra through a Christian go-between from Baghdad, who used to work as a translator with the Americans. They were in jeans and I smuggled them to Kuwait in return for $450 each," Hasnawi told IOL.

"The go-between told me that the two soldiers did not to be gunned down in Iraq without a cause," he added.

Kazem al-Badri, a taxi driver, claimed that cab and truck drivers nowadays are testing the pulse of search themselves or through go-betweens for U.S. soldiers who want to escape from the war-scarred country in return for bucks.

"It is not a rumor or an Iraqi propaganda but it is a fact, because I myself know a lot of drivers who helped U.S. soldiers escape from Iraq," Badri insisted, adding that smuggling rates hit first a mind-boggling $5,000 for each soldier but were now put down to $500.


www.turks.us...

Sideline to the Hussein Brothers Corpse Circus

What is the regular policy concerning circulation of vital info amongst spouses, and do the controls go not far enough or too far?

Military Wife Rebuked for E-Mail
Spouse Accused of Spreading Fear in Bid for Information

By Christian Davenport
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 27, 2003; Page C01

Susan Peacock thought that the 400th Military Police Battalion Family Readiness Group was there to provide solace and support for spouses of soldiers shipped to Iraq.

But when she read her e-mail July 15, she was appalled at what she saw. Group leaders were playing what one later called "hardball" with the Columbia mother of two and other 400th family members.

"OK this has gone far enough!" they wrote. The message said that "certain people are getting their soldiers in trouble" and that the unit's e-mail list had been sent to the Pentagon "for possible security violations and will be closely monitored."

A few days earlier, Peacock had heard a news report about an explosion outside Baghdad, near where the 400th, her husband's unit, was based. Since he'd left this spring, she'd grown skeptical of the military's unfailingly rosy accounts of the 400th's status.

Desperately worried, she tried to get information about the blast from family support staff and Army officials at Fort Meade, where the 400th is based. But after three days of inquiries, Peacock said she still knew nothing.

That's when she decided the other wives of the 400th might want to know about the incident. She sent an e-mail telling everyone what she'd heard.

"Evidently everything is not fine," she said she wrote.

Military families have always walked a difficult path in wartime -- balancing loyalty to the cause, hunger for information about loved ones and, sometimes, misgivings about the mission. The military, in turn, has tried to quell dissent with appeals to spouses' sense of patriotism, urging them to button up because "loose lips sink ships."

Now, in the age of e-mail and satellite phones, those loose lips can spread information instantaneously. And as the military tries to keep public opinion from souring on the conflict in Iraq, it is scrambling to control the velocity -- and volume -- of information.

"You have a situation over there where everybody ain't happy; that's just the way it is," said Jack Gordon, a spokesman for the Army Reserve's 99th Regional Readiness Command.

"Being a soldier has always entailed not being happy all the time. There are going to be grumbles and complaints as this continues. The difference is now these grumbles and complaints become public almost immediately."

Afraid that such publicity can affect morale, his office recently posted an article for soldiers on its Web site with the headline: "Got a Gripe? Watch Where You Air Your Frustrations -- It Just Might Make News." The posting was part of the fallout from a July 16 ABC News report in which Spec. Clinton Dietz of the 3rd Infantry Division said: "If [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld was here, I'd ask him for his resignation."

Lisa Torey, the family program coordinator for the 220th Military Police Brigade, which oversees the 400th, said in an interview that there were no injuries in the blast Peacock was asking about. Peacock's e-mail, she said, was distressing to many families who don't watch the news and don't want bits of information dripping in from unofficial sources. They have a right, she said, not to be disturbed with troubling news.

She added that there had been several other "violations" regarding use of the e-mail chain. Torey, a civilian volunteer whose husband is deployed in Iraq, wouldn't specify what those were, but she said she had to put a stop to them.

"We have 150,000 troops over there," she said. "Someone could say something, and that information could get to the wrong person. And then ultimately you could have the worst-case scenario, and we have a dead soldier on our hands."

In a follow-up e-mail to the family members of the 400th on Tuesday, Torey backed off, writing that "no one is in trouble with the Pentagon or Higher Headquarters." She wrote that she "had to play hardball and get you to stop immediately because that fine line regarding breach of security was almost crossed."

Finally, she added: "You also have to remember that your loved ones volunteered to do this, they may have done it with the impression that they would never go anywhere because they are 'Reservists,' but they knew that was a possibility when they signed that dotted line."

The 400th is not the only unit whose families have recently received e-mails encouraging them to put a lid on their complaints. Anita Blount, wife of Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III, commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, wrote that she shared their frustration about the length of the division's deployment to Iraq.

She went on to say that she knows "many of you believe you should embark on a campaign to raise awareness of the need for the [3rd Infantry Division] to return. We need to be aware of a possible outcome of our outcries that could backfire on us directly."

She said that "when the Iraqis see media coverage of disgruntled Americans, publicly campaigning for the return of our soldiers from Iraq, they are encouraged and believe their strategy is working. They believe that their continued attacks on American soldiers are having the desired affect and are diminishing the resolve of the American people to complete the task in Iraq."

Her letter was praised by R.L. Brownlee, acting secretary of the Army, who wrote her an e-mail that said: "Your call to endure continued separation and fight cynicism will encourage others to persevere."

Despite the tensions between some spouses and family support personnel, many wives say the service is a valuable one.

Noreen Knight of Edgewood, Md., whose husband, Tim, is a sergeant with the 443rd, said, "there's always a lot of helpful information" in the e-mails. Her group leader has sent out everything from how to send a care package, to notices about free child care and updates about the lengths of deployment.

That's how the family readiness groups should be used, Gordon said. They are there to help families negotiate tough times, get them counseling if they need it or information about everything from health insurance to family finances. The groups were "created in an attempt to lessen the stresses of the families at home by sharing information," he said.

Cathy Mullaney of Damascus, whose husband, John, is a captain with the 443rd Military Police Company, said the encouragement she gets from her unit's family support leader helps lift her spirits on days when she's so weighted by worry she has to force herself out of bed in the morning.

What she really appreciates is when the group leader shows that she is also having a tough time. "It lets us know that everything we're going through is normal," Mullaney said.

"Some days, we're all Mr. and Mrs. Patriot," she said. "And the next day, we're like, 'How could the government take them from us?' "

Staff writer John F. Kelly contributed to this report.

Originally posted by Leveller
*sigh*

So I'm meant to take the word of a poster here who "says" he knows a soldier who supposedly was at the scene and "says" the word "Conspiracy"?

Please. Get real.


I've read and watched everything I can about this subject and it doesn't say "conspiracy" to me.
It says "We got the buggers".

bingo.

GAH! my smiley has a hand growing out of jis head!

[Edited on 29-7-2003 by KrazyIvan]