Posted on Saturday, March 21 / 2003

U.S. Strikes "Target Of Opportunity" In Iraq, Discount Chain Stunned By News

Super Target goes up in flames.

WASHINGTON – U.S. and coalition forces began an attack on Iraq approximately two hours after the deadline passed for Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave the country by launching approximately 40 tomahawk cruise missiles at a SuperTarget discount store in Baghdad.

The attack came six hours after the director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, informed the president of the prospect of transforming the war on Iraq by assassinating Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in an initial attack on what he termed a “target of opportunity” in Baghdad. The CIA, Tenet said, had obtained information leading them to believe that there was “a high probability” that Hussein and others in “the most senior levels of Iraqi leadership” would be stocking up on supplies at a local discount store at approximately 10 PM ET. There was no guarantee at all, Tenet said, that Hussein’s whereabouts would be pinpointed again in the near future but most likely wouldn't be prime situation as a building with a 'bulls eye' logo.

Owners of the Target discount chain released a statement afterwards indicating that they were “stunned and saddened” by the attack. It was much more likely, they said, that Hussein was planning to shop at Wal-Mart, rather than Target, and that they were “disheartened” by the president’s decision to order an attack on Target, rather than on its chief rival.

In other news from Washington, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today flatly denied any suggestion that the Bush administration's decision to reconstruct the Pentagon into a structure resembling the star of David was engineered by Israel or American Jews.

Rumsfeld told a House Appropriations Subcommittee that the decision to change the shape of the Pentagon was driven by the ever-increasing size of the United States military, and not by some "small group of individual congressional lobbyists" nor by "a country the size of New Jersey".

Rumsfeld's comments came after House Representative Jim Moran, D-Virginia, apologized for making comments asserting that influential leaders of the Jewish community were the driving force behind the Department of Defense's decision to transform the headquarters of the United States Military into a structure resembling the star of David.

Some angry Jewish leaders, including six Jewish members of Congress have called on Moran to resign;  however, Moran said he has no intention of doing so.

Staff Writer Dengle Barry reporting for News2me


| RETURN TO TOP STORY |


 

© Copyright 2003 TL-Inc - All rights reserved