This is What We're Dealing With (twice over)

You're an a$$hole sometimes cj. For real.

If the ladies really were mentally disabled it is likely they didn't understand what was going on.

Cycloptichorn

Eat me - showing your true colors again.

I want to show my true colours again, too:

I've worked for 25 years now with " F--KING MENTAL DEFECTIVE"s, my aunt, 84, is since four months in a hospital for "F--KING MENTAL DEFECTIVE", one SIL is from birth onwards (=51 years now) a " F--KING MENTAL DEFECTIVE" ...

Good for you Walt.

Yet once again you totally miss the point.

You know, if the story is true, then maybe they're running low on terrorists wiling to blow themselves up, and have to rely on those that cannot think for themselves? Could be a good omen.

Mentally Retarded Women Used As Bombers
Iraqi Official: 2 Women With Down Syndrome Used In Deadly Strike In Baghdad; At Least 73 Dead

BAGHDAD, Feb. 1, 2008

More than 50 people died after a pair of suicide attacks by female bombers. The violence occurred as Baghdad residents said they felt the safest since the Iraq war began. Mark Strassmann reports.

Baghdad Pet Bazaar Blasts

Two female bombers strike in coordinated attack killing more than 70 people.


(CBS/AP) Militants strapped a pair of mentally retarded women with explosives and blew them up by remote control in two pet bazaars Friday, killing at least 73 people in the deadliest day since Washington began pouring extra troops into the capital last spring.

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, Iraq's chief military spokesman in Baghdad, said the women had Down syndrome and may not have known they were on a suicide mission. The tactic would support U.S. claims that al Qaeda in Iraq may be increasingly desperate and running short of able-bodied men willing or available for such missions.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said the bombings showed that a resilient al Qaeda has "found a different, deadly way" to try to destabilize Iraq.

"There is nothing they won't do if they think it will work in creating carnage and the political fallout that comes from that," he told The Associated Press in an interview at the State Department.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said bombing in Iraq proves al Qaeda is "the most brutal and bankrupt of movements" and will strengthen Iraqi resolve to reject terrorism.

CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports that many teenage boys were among the dead, and the bomber devastated not only the popular pet market, but also the emerging sense of confidence that residents of Iraq's capital had begun to feel.

Baghdad had grown quieter and safer since the U.S. troop surge flooded the city's streets last spring, reports Strassmann, who adds that "today, the new Baghdad feels a lot like the old Baghdad."

The first bomber was detonated about 10:20 a.m. in the central al-Ghazl market. Four police and hospital officials said at least 46 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.

Local police said the woman wearing the bomb sold cream in the mornings at the market and was known to locals as "the crazy lady."

The weekly pet bazaar had been bombed several times during the war, but with violence declining in the capital, the market had regained popularity as a shopping district and place to stroll on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer.

But this Friday offered a scene of carnage straight out of the worst days of the conflict. Firefighters scooped up debris scattered among pools of blood, clothing and pigeon carcasses.

A pigeon vendor said the market had been unusually crowded, with people taking advantage of the day off to be outdoors on the pleasantly crisp and clear winter day. January had been unusually cold and rainy.

"I have been going to the pet market with my friend every Friday, selling and buying pigeons," said Ali Ahmed, who was hit by shrapnel in his legs and chest. "It was nice weather today and the market was so crowded."

He said he was worried about his friend, Zaki, who disappeared after the blast about 40 yards away.

"I just remember the horrible scene of the bodies of dead and wounded people mixed with the blood of animals and birds, then I found myself lying in a hospital bed," Ali said.

About 20 minutes after the first attack, the second female suicide bomber was blown apart in the bird market in a predominantly Shiite area in southeastern Baghdad. As many as 27 people died and 67 were wounded, police and hospital officials said.

Rae Muhsin, the 21-year-old owner of a cell phone store, said he was walking toward the New Baghdad bird market in southeastern Baghdad when the blast occurred, shattering the windows of nearby stores.

"I ran toward the bird market and saw charred pieces of flesh, small spots of blood and several damaged cars," Muhsin said, adding he will no longer visit the Friday market. "I thought that we had achieved real security in Baghdad, but it turned that we were wrong."

The attacks were the latest in a series of violent incidents that frayed a gossamer of Iraqi confidence in the permanence of recent security gains.

The U.S. military in Iraqi issued a statement that shared "the outrage of the Iraqi people, and we condemn the brutal enemy responsible for these attacks, which bear the hallmarks of being carried out by al-Qaeda in Iraq."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani confirmed the death toll was about 70 and said the attacks were the work of committed by terrorists motivated by revenge and "to show that they are still able to stop the march of history and of our people toward reconciliation."

But Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye, a U.S. military spokesman, gave far lower casualty figures - seven killed and 23 wounded in the first bombing, and 20 killed and 30 wounded in the second.

He confirmed, however, both attacks were carried out by women wearing explosives vests and said the attacks appeared coordinated and likely the work of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Associated Press records show that since the start of the war at least 151 people have been killed in at least 17 attacks or attempted attacks by female suicide bombers, including today's bombings.

The most recent was on Jan. 16 when a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives among men preparing for the Ashoura holiday in a Shiite village near the Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba.

While involving women in such deadly activity violates cultural taboos in Iraq, the U.S. military has warned that al Qaeda is recruiting women and young people as suicide attackers because militants are increasingly desperate to thwart stepped-up security measures. Syria also has reportedly tightened its border with Iraq, a main transit point for incoming foreign bombers.

Women in Iraq often wear abayas, the black Islamic robe, and avoid thorough searches at checkpoints because men are not allowed to touch them and there are too few female police.

While astonishingly brutal, the use of the mentally disabled in suicide bombings is not unprecedented in Iraq. In January 2005, Iraq's interior minister said that insurgents used a disabled child in a suicide attacker on election day. Police at the scene of the bombing said the child appeared to have Down syndrome.

Many teenage boys were among the casualties in the al-Ghazl bombing Friday, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

In Late November, a bomb hidden in a box of small birds exploded at the al-Ghazl market, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. The U.S. military blamed the November attack on Iranian-backed Shiite militants, saying they had hoped al Qaeda in Iraq would be held responsible for the attack so Iraqis would turn to them for protection.

The U.S. military has been unable to stop the suicide bombings despite a steep drop in violence in the past six months, but the Friday's blasts were the deadliest in the capital since an April 18, suicide car bombing that killed 116 and wounded 145

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/01/iraq/main3777703.shtml

Now, when any Downs syndrome victim walks into a public space in Iraq, they are going to get gunned down.

Al Queda is such a nice bunch of folks, don't you think?

I don't neither think that such is good for me nor did I miss the point since I've only quoted your own words.

And again: you are an a$$whole². For real.

Not paying attention in class isn't helping your case any Walt.

Walt says I'm an asshole - what a compliment.

Better than being a pacifist dumbass Al Queda sympathizer.

That makes as much sense as anything else we have done since 9/11.

If we were not there the small AQ that is there (only like 2%) would not have such a big target or reason to be there creating havoc and devastation.

That's going to make Allah happy for sure!

Down Syndrome is a genetic disorder, not a mental illness, though the individuals with Down syndrome may have mental retardation in the mild to moderate range.

I wonder if this is a new tactic by Bush to get American's pissed off about Iraq.

cjhsa:


Did anyone at Reuters say the women either "strapped themselves" with a bomb, or understand what was going on?

What was the point of the statement quoted above?

The point is that anyone who wasn't officially mentally defective that would be willing to blow themselves up in a crowd, honorarily gets the title (maybe not really honorary, just an inability of psychiatric experts to always put the proper label on them).

When I first saw this report, I figured the Iraquis were making it up, and that Reuters would not catch the irony of the report shameful.

I failed to consider how low a terrorist organization would step.

Downs syndrome is obviously not a mental defect nor did I mean to imply that. Still, the fact that Downs sufferers are often incapable of knowing right from wrong, and that someone would abuse them in this way... just sick.

On a (twisted) positive note, perhaps they are running out of folks actually willing to take on such attack roles.

Most likely since the stepped security in Iraq they are simply devising new tactics which allow them to carry out their missions. Women now in Iraq mostly wear those all over black dresses (forgot the name and sure don't know to spell it even if I did remember it.) They don't have a lot of women available and since Islam prohibits men to search them; it makes sense from their point of view to use that tactic. They have been employing women and children more and more lately to be able to get them past the check points; I guess women with down syndrome would just be an added advantage in their tactics. (I don't know anything about the condition so I don't know if they were aware of what was going on ar not) But its like con men who walk around with fake handicaps in order to gain sympathy to get money. If they didn't know what was going on then it was a new low; but I think it is horrible when they use children or pre-teens for the same reason which they have been doing as well.

People have been saying all along that if we don't fight them over there we will fight them in our streets. It seems to me going by that logic if we left they would not be there and so that aspect of the problem would go away.

Of course some of them may stay there to keep their hand in because in the end everybody really is fighting over who gets the oil.

Iraqi medic detained over blasts

Fresh news from Al Queda. Warning: Extremely graphic video. Such nice folks too.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9089532722810348478