-- On 10 Apr 2003 at 22:24, Kevin S. Van Horn wrote:
The "empty runways and terminals" is consistent with Fisk's report, which appears to have been filed before the actual capture of the airport took place.
The attack taking place within hours is not consistent with Fisk's report. Fisk did not merely claim that no attack was taking place. No one claimed an attack was taking place. Fisk claimed to have exposed the Americans as lying, and confirmed Baghdad Bob as telling the truth, in that supposedly US troops were nowhere near the airport. Fisk issued a bunch of rhetoric similar to that of Baghdad Bob: "the Iraqi minister was right and the Americans were wrong" "the Americans had been caught lying again" "Had the Americans found themselves miles away on the edge of the old RAF airbase at Habbaniyeh, one wondered, and confused it with the airport outside Baghdad? Had they sent a patrol up to the far side of the Saddam airport for a few minutes, just to say they'd been there? Back in 1941, a German patrol briefly captured the last tram-stop on the line west of Moscow, collecting the discarded passenger tickets as souvenirs - and then got no farther. " That someone, possibly Fisk (though I suspect him to be in England, not Baghdad), wandered through an airport lounge and saw no scenes of battle is doubtless true -- since the pentagon did not claim to be attacking the airport at that time. That Baghdad Bob was right about the location of US troops was not true. That the Americans were lying about the location of US troops was not true. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG a9S0tpaCtCFHBGn0DGv6LFN/K8eXxRxr2FLQwbqK 4MrIWG0Ir0gNtYK5aZyvwG6iikiag3oFTnboGTFu/