Weekend Edition May 22 / 23, 2004
Turnaround

*Senor Shows Human Side, Is Whisked Away by Security Contractors
By RON JACOBS

(Baghdad Green Zone, May 20, 2004)
In a surprising turnaround, Coalition spokesman Dan "the man" Senor admitted
to media gathered inside the Green Zone Thursday that American helicopters
had knowingly attacked a wedding party 15 miles from the Syrian border and
southwest of the town of Qusaiba. Earlier, the Coalition had denied the
charges, claiming that the attack was against "enemy fighters."
"There were no enemy fighters in the area," said Senor. "Our soldiers knew
that the only people in the village were Iraqi civilians. They went ahead
and attacked anyhow. It's a form of terror we use often."

This acknowledgement by Senor confirmed what local Iraqis had been telling
Arab and European media since they were notified of the attack. Television
outlets broadcast film taken at the scene, showing a truck heaped with
bloody bodies, many of them wrapped in blankets. Several of the bodies shown
were those of children. Until Senor's statement, US officials were insisting
that the dead were all "foreign fighters." To prove their point, these
officials produced weapons and passports they claimed they recovered from
the scene.

"We bombed a safe house," said General Abizaid "There were nothing but
foreign fighters in the area. They deserved what they got." He went on to
describe the village as one known to be friendly to the resistance against
the US occupation. This version of events was challenged by doctors and
nurses at nearby Ramadi hospital, who told media that forty-five people had
been killed, including ten women and fifteen children. Doctors said most of
the children were between 2 and 5 years old.

Independent media reporters were able to obtain photocopies of the passports
the Coalition claims they found in the rubble of the houses destroyed in the
attack. None of the descriptions or photos matched any of the dead or
wounded. When confronted with this, Senor admitted that there were no
foreign fighters in the village. "There were no foreign fighters in the
village," said Senor. "In fact, there are no foreign fighters in Iraq except
for those fighting with the Coalition. Just like the WMD, the whole foreign
fighters helping out the insurgency thing is a lie."

This admission was followed by a quarter-hour of rapid-fire questioning by
the assembled media. Most of these questions centered on the acknowledgement
by Senor that the administration invaded Iraq knowing that Iraq possessed no
WMD. Senor fielded the questions, occasionally wiping away a tear.
"You know," he said. "I was willing to go along with this whole invasion and
occupation because I truly believed that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy who
really was a threat to the United States. I told my bosses that I would tell
you guys in the media anything that they wanted me to tell them. WMD,
Al-Queda, anthrax, no prison abuse or only isolated prisoner abuse,
whatever. But when I saw those dead kids killed for no reason in their
sleep, I don't know, something just cracked inside of me. I couldn't justify
it. I mean, there's no way those kids were foreign fighters and, if they
were, then we really shouldn't be here if babies are picking up weapons to
fight us."

Reporters wrote Senor's remarks down, incredulous at what they were hearing. Never in the collective memory of all the media gathered had any government spokesman been so candid. Senor continued, switching to the topic of Israel. "As for Israel," he began. "They have no intention of stopping their assault on the Palestinians. They want to dominate the Middle East with the United States. It's all part of a big plan to" At this point, two unidentified security contractors dressed entirely in black jumpsuits similar to those worn by SWAT teams in the US grabbed Senor. He was led away at gunpoint.

Chaos ensued among the press corps as they raced to file the story. While attempting to send their reports via the internet, all connections were mysteriously shut down. This reporter was able to relay his report via a separate wireless connection maintained by independent supporters.Senor's current whereabouts are unknown, although unnamed sources at Abu Gharaib prison in Baghdad have told this reporter and other media that he is
being held there and will be shipped to Camp X-Ray at Gauntanamo Bay soon.

The White House and Pentagon have denied Senor's statements in separate
press releases. The White House went further, suggesting that Senor had
either lost his mind or forgotten who was signing his paychecks.
Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather
Underground, which is being republished by Verso. He can be reached at:
rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu

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