Robert Fiske interviewed from Iraq

[Michael Eisenstadt]

i dint much like some of this guy's reporting
on Israel/Palestine forwarded to the list by 
Roger. he may have been more accurate that i
wanted to admit.

a phone interview with him i read this morning 
somewhere (English Guardian i think) described 
taking off in an Airbus from the Baghdad airport. 
the pilot Fiske reports powered up to 35000 feet 
as fast as the Airbus' powerplant/airframe could 
go, a corkscrewing maneouvre where you see the 
ground at a very sharp angle alternatively out 
the right and the left windows.

earlier chatting with lifer American soldiers
securing the airport, he reports they were
impressed with the professionalism of the
attackers. there was a 5 mile buffer around
the airport which has been reduced to 2 miles,
i didnt understand exactly why.

sooner or later a SAM is going to take out
an airliner.

crazy is as crazy does. the Bush crazies say
they will stay the course no matter what.

the Baghdad curfew was lifted last week for Ramadan 
in order to win the hearts and minds of the locals. 
makes it that much easier to drive a pickup truck 
carrying a mortar under a tarp in the nighttime 
traffic, activate the timer and betake oneself 
elsewhere. a largescale survey map is all that 
is needed to aim it by setting the azimuth.