I can't say it is true, or not true. The story of him in the hole comes from the same people who brought you the "Look at the celebrating Iraqis pulling down the Statue of Saddam" and the same people who brought us "There was fire coming from that hotel, and that's why we attacked it" Luckily we've been able to find out the false nature of those statements through eyewitnesses and in one case the armed forces admitting it. There is no way to tell which, if either side, is telling the truth without more witnesses, or an admission for one side.
Whether he was caught in a fire fight or spider hole he was on the run for months so its to be expected he wouldn't look that good.
Correct me if I'm wrong here but don't former Baathists have a lot to do with Iraq? Anyway even GW Bush has said that the strategy is to make Iraq the center in the War on Terrorism by getting terrorists to come and fight Americans there than here so the insurgency has everything to do with Iraq.
I think if that soldier felt like spilling the beans, he'd go to an american media outlet. You can't tell me there isn't some journalist waiting to pounce on that story.
Well, you could look up the "Marine of Sudanese origin" who was killed: http://icasualties.org/oif/BY_DOD.aspx Hmmm... You could look up the composition of Task Force 121, the guys who captured Saddam & most of the other HVT's captured in planned ops. You could question how there were 8 Arab/Arab-Americans out of 20 members of such a highly specialized team. You could look up what Marine resources were in Iraq b/t 9/03 and 1/04 (hint, the list is very, very short). You could believe this guy, you might recognize him from pgab's pic: http://ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=64178 You could also look up Nadim Abou Rabeh's Combat Action Ribbon, awarded to any Marine present during any exchange of gunfire, such as the one described by Rabeh: https://lnweb1.manpower.usmc.mil/manpower/mm/mmma/AwardsVerification.nsf/search Ask a Marine to get on Marine Online & look up Nadim Rabeh. I did. He does not exist.
That was rationale #9 for the invasion of Iraq. You're not supposed to notice that it directly undermines rationale #14- promoting democracy in Iraq.
The Marine of Sudaneese origin may or may not be a U.S. marine or one from a number of other nations including an Iraqi. As far as looking up his name, that may or not be an accurate indicator. Abu Mazen is what the Palestinian leader is called, his name is Abbas. It coule be a situation like that. The rest of it sure points to stinky pile of BS on the part of the report. In all liklihood though it seems like the report doesn't pass the smell test. Great work.
