reporter

Joined

• started 53 topics
• posted 389 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by reporter

• 
  100

  Kingdom Hall Spankings

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  most meetings i went to, children were brought to the washrooms in the back to be disciplined.

  often i could hear a child yell or cry due to the spanking given by the parent.

  people in the hall would have that look on their face meaning that it was alright to discipline a child by spanking him.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  reporter

  Welcome to the "discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah..."

  A far cry from "authoritative advice", don't you say?
• 
  28

  ALERT--ALERT--Randys Got Watchtower On Tape--Backing Bush! Money Laundering

  by Voyager in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  here is the thread you need: http://www.randytv.com/laundermoney.htm.

  watchtower admits, from the watchtower's treasurers office, to backing bush, and engaging in political, military, and government programs.

  laundering money through their holocaust fund.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  reporter

  Interesting tape but all heresay and not enough evidence to link the Watchtower with any political ties.

  Will

  Not in an of itself...but we are all aware of how the WTS hypocritically dabbles in political action groups and interfaith initiatives, and NGO-type groups, when it suits them. I'm sure our resident hawkaw as well as Randy and others will be filling us in with details and supporting evidence quite shortly. The precedents have already been proven, so I'll give any of this research more weight than not, and I don't need it to convince me of what is really going on with the WTS. This cult hurts people, and it hurts families, plain and simple.

  My personal opinion is that there are some Zionist-type influences, and right-wing fundy Bush-crime-family-type hyper-religionists are right up the WTS's alley, and are in bed with and share many of the WTS's goals, and behave quite the same way. I can't prove that, but I'll bet you a timbit and a coffee that at least a grain of this is the case. Following the money trail, of course, is going to lead to more evidence of the UN-NGO calibre. After all, the Russell family bloodline founded the Yale's skull and bones society, and these roots are related to Freemasonry, and there can't be anything good coming out of that. That's just one opinion, though, and I'm always considering other suggestions...

  Just the simple admission that they are doing ANY WORLDLY ORGANIZATIONAL LECTURING in support of any group's objectives is hypocritical in and of itself, considering what they are teaching, and what they have taught, through the pages of their litterature.
• 
  22

  I'm going back to the Kingdom Hall

  by Gopher in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...just to see what it looks like these days.

  just out of morbid curiosity, maybe to try to recognize some of the cars in the parking lot.

  will i actually go back inside???

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  reporter

  Ha! I think I'll convert to Muslimism and have my 72 virgins...at least I'll be sure they're not wrinkley!
• 
  15

  Miscellaneous Tidbits You Should Be Aware Of...

  by reporter in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  .

  ok, now we are preparing for dhs code red...if that happens, don't dare come to pick up your kids!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  reporter

  Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11
  
  WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2002
  
  
  

  Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, with Saddam Hussein in background. (CBS/AP) "Go massive ... Sweep it all up. Things related and not." Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld hours after 9/11 attack

  (CBS) CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.
  
  That's according to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on Sept. 11 – notes that show exactly where the road toward war with Iraq began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.
  
  At 9:53 a.m., just 15 minutes after the hijacked plane had hit the Pentagon, and while Rumsfeld was still outside helping with the injured, the National Security Agency, which monitors communications worldwide, intercepted a phone call from one of Osama bin Laden's operatives in Afghanistan to a phone number in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
  
  The caller said he had "heard good news" and that another target was still to come; an indication he knew another airliner, the one that eventually crashed in Pennsylvania, was at that very moment zeroing in on Washington.
  
  It was 12:05 p.m. when the director of Central Intelligence told Rumsfeld about the intercepted conversation.
  
  Rumsfeld felt it was "vague," that it "might not mean something," and that there was "no good basis for hanging hat." In other words, the evidence was not clear-cut enough to justify military action against bin Laden.
  
  But later that afternoon, the CIA reported the passenger manifests for the hijacked airliners showed three of the hijackers were suspected al Qaeda operatives.
  
  "One guy is associate of Cole bomber," the notes say, a reference to the October 2000 suicide boat attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, which had also been the work of bin Laden.
  
  With the intelligence all pointing toward bin Laden, Rumsfeld ordered the military to begin working on strike plans. And at 2:40 p.m., the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H." – meaning Saddam Hussein – "at same time. Not only UBL" – the initials used to identify Osama bin Laden.
  
  Now, nearly one year later, there is still very little evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. But if these notes are accurate, that didn't matter to Rumsfeld.
  
  "Go massive," the notes quote him as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
  © MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.
• 
  15

  Miscellaneous Tidbits You Should Be Aware Of...

  by reporter in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  .

  ok, now we are preparing for dhs code red...if that happens, don't dare come to pick up your kids!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  reporter

  He Ain't Heavy...
  He's My Brother By Judith Moriarty
  [email protected]

  3-30-3

  

  An Iraqi boy sits near the body of his brother lying in a casket
  prior to his funeral after the US-led bombing. Photo: AFP
  
  

  Where have all the children gone--long time passing? Who will stop the madness of a world sending its children off to war to kill other people's children in other lands? What in God's name is the matter with us? We were supposed to protect, care for, nurture, and love these little ones. "Rights of the Child---Protect the Children---Amber Alerts--Don't Take Candy from Strangers---Buckle-up---Watch for Cars--Playground Safety--Zero Tolerance---Safety Locks on Guns---Security Alarms---Fire Alarms---Carbon Monoxide Alarms---Danger, Second-Hand Smoke---Danger, Drawstrings on Snowsuits---Safety Caps---Curfews---No Child Left Behind etc." This isn't about marching, drumming, signs, die-ins, singing, flags, candle-light vigils, yellow-ribbons, flags, bugles, support the troops, bring'em home, nor hate filled labels of anti-American, treason, war-hawks, love it or leave it". This is about kids killing kids. Plain and simple. This is about hate, anger, revenge, greed, power, conquest, oil, contracts, and weapons of unimaginable vaporizing destruction, terrifying and shredding children. Their children and our children. For what? Freedom, democracy, liberation, evil, terrorism? You don't annihilate a people and their land with fire storms, cluster bombs, bunker busters, tanks and missiles and call it "liberation-freedom-nor democracy". It's murder, it's killing, it's barbarism, it's savage and loathsome. Children in an Army Base School putting up pictures and writing stories of their mothers and fathers off killing "the bad guys". The teacher tells them as they cry that they can hug them in their minds. No they can't. They want a mommy to be there when they fall down and daddy to tuck them in at night, catch ball with them, see their first steps. Instead we have their dads and moms off killing other children's moms and dads. What's wrong with this picture? In war everyone loses. Everyone that is except those making a profit from death. Young men, hardly out of high school waved off at docks and now dying. Dying for what? How does one kill evil with evil? How do you make sense over using the most horrific weapons of mass destruction seen on the face of the earth because some dust bowl ravaged country, might--just might someday have what we're killing them with. Somebody tell me how this makes sense. How in God's precious name do you tell people that after you're finished with the terrifying "Shock and Awe" that you're going to fed them and give the kids chocolate bars to make everything right? How? Not with a flag and not with a peace sign, it can't be done. Where there is no justice there can be no peace. Peace is an outward manifestation of a heart's attitude of love for all humanity---all. The supposed adults in all this mayhem, starvation, bombings, and death are too busy ripping and tearing at one another. The adult police are beating down the people who cry for peace and arresting them. Why? Because they're against killing? Tell me somebody how this makes sense? Then you have people with flags and signs shouting, 'support the troops' at the peace people. Others seeing an excuse for destruction of property break windows and turn over cars. Then the other adults, the ones who plan wars, and make the weapons, instruct other adults on TV to tell the people that everything is going fine." Today we killed 50 here and another 30 here. Twenty were killed by friendly fire, some are missing, others are maimed, but we're going to decapitate and get to the center of gravity and win this thing. Maybe not in a week or month or six months, but win we will." Then some dusty generals get up and tell everyone how it should be done and some Public Relations hirelings called "experts" talk about insane nothings. And more people march, and more flags are waved, and the dying goes on, and some people count all the money they're making and watch the stock market. As an aside, it's mentioned that some people died somewhere the numbers are not known, but we must keep killing because a madman is loose! The children keep killing one another and the children of the bad guys and the good guys keep dying, because the big people have lost their minds. Everyone has forgotten about the children. Where have all the children gone, long time passing.....we've killed them every one. And an only son of a father in Baltimore and a father in Texas come home--dead, and soon are forgotten. A picture, a flag, a medal and maybe another Wall to visit someday and look at a name. A little girl dancing down a cobbled street, running after her grandpa; is lifted from the rubble of a bunker buster, cluster bomb, missile---what matter. Her little feet are gone, only shredded bone is left. The shaggy purple jacket, her favorite, is dirty and bloody . Her lifeless little body shows no joy on her ashen face of being "liberated". Day Ten, and the bombs continue with the sky ablaze. A little boy, traumatized into silent horror, sits beside his shattered baby brother, maybe all of four years old, in a cheap wooden box waiting to be buried between the rain of terror. Freedom's child will never reach for the promised chocolate. And tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow the adults will bomb, will beat their clubs on shields, will wave their flags, tie their ribbons, and talk about another mighty weapon. Nobody will see the grief of fathers burying their only sons. They will not give a thought to liberation's missing feet; nor for freedom's mangled little body covered in blood. War kills everyone. War drives people mad. War is the real bad guy, War and his soulless minions. If I'm laden at all I'm laden with sadness That everyone's heart Isn't filled with gladness And love for one another It's a long, long road From which there is no return While we're on the way to there Why not share And the load doesn't weigh me down at all He ain't heavy, he's my brother He's My Brother (unknown)
• 
  3

  Bush's Message to the Peacenik Democrats!

  by reporter in

  1. social
  2. humour

  president's remarks to traitorous peacemonger democrats: "last call to hop on board the bloodwagon!

  bury your principles in red-hot, shockin' awesome war porn!

  statement by the president .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  reporter

  PRESIDENT'S REMARKS TO TRAITOROUS PEACEMONGER DEMOCRATS: "LAST CALL TO HOP ON BOARD THE BLOODWAGON! BURY YOUR PRINCIPLES IN RED-HOT, SHOCKIN' AWESOME WAR PORN!"
  Statement by the President
  

  To the handful of remaining publicly pro-peace Democrat sissies like Tom Daschle and Lincoln Chaffee, I have these words for you: the "USA Might is Right Bloodwagon" is leaving the station babies, so liquefy those spines, hitch up those skirts and jump on board, or forever zip your puke chutes! Because once I slaughter enough Iraqazoids, we're staging one hell of a carefully-produced, Made-for-TV Arabiac Lovefest, and the only way to score killer touchy-feely footage for your 2004 campaign commercials will be to join me now in my deleted

  To the rest of America I say this: in our new uncertain time of undeclared war, it is essential for all scared-shitless, working-class zombies and bourgeois fascists to come to the aid of their quasi-elected corporate masters. Confront the peacemonger, the Democrat, the hippy asshole who doesn't get off watching Die Hard and ask them: are you with America, or are you a seditious fellator of uncircumcised terrorist schlong?

  This country isn't strong enough to endure rabid division and debate. Only by uniting in a bloodthirsty orgy of blinding nationalistic purpose can we inflict selective democracy by toppling that demonized eunuch Saddam Hussein. I mean come on, Democraps! You think life is a world popularity contest? deleted the world. If the world jumped off a bridge, would you too? If the world wanted to sacrifice short term profitability for a future of global tranquility and ecological sustainability, would you too? Hell, no!

  Therefore, I hereby command all Americans – Republican or wrong – to tune their dials to the FOX News Channel and absorb the relentless glory of wartime killing! Feel your powerless and flaccid souls engorge with blood and power as sanitized video-phone footage of the rosy-cheeked, flag-waving GI Joes I'm killing fills every absorbent cranny of your sponge-like brain. War is hell, but only if you can see you're taking a beating.

  You know, conservative oracle Bill O'Reilly, who hasn't stopped spewing holy truths since he was still covered in amniotic slime, correctly believes that networks shouldn't show war dead, because people already know how tough war can be. I agree with him: the news is not here to sensationalize war. Our various corporate Ministries of Propaganda are here to desensitize you to war. Some knee-jerk bleeding heart snatches might call this a bad thing. I say – do you want your dentist tearing out a rotten molar without a nose full of happy gas?

  I submitted a prospective cost for this war to the Congress the other day. I requested more tax dollars to help to continue harassing Americans suspected of being "funny." More tax dollars to begin subsidizing the humanitarian corporations that will take over Iraq when Pharaoh Franks finally marches into Baghdad, and more flying Killbots.

  What I didn't include in that cost is the generation of young people who make up our superior armed forces, who are being marched through sandstorms, mortars, and bullets all because a bunch of pudgy, middle-aged chickenhawks whose only combat experience is watching Saving Private Ryan had a paranoid brainstorm twelve years ago. One day, while reading the names of their dead friends on an imposing marble war memorial, that generation will ask, "Why?"

  Well sons – and brutish lezbo daughters – "why?" is hard to fully answer from high up here atop the American pyramid of entitlement. Perhaps if you had been born with a sterling silver ladle in your mouth, you'd be able to understand that the close-knit group of greedy, monacled pig men in top hats who control the world's levers of power are simply above such mundane questions as "why?"

  In closing, I sincerely hope that after we've kicked these despotic, former American protégé sand monkeys all over Mesopotamia, and once peace has settled on the Earth ten or twenty years from now, my grandchildren will ask my twins – "Mommy, what was a Democrat?"

  Thank you.
• 
  15

  Miscellaneous Tidbits You Should Be Aware Of...

  by reporter in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  .

  ok, now we are preparing for dhs code red...if that happens, don't dare come to pick up your kids!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  reporter

  OUR LUKE WAS NOT EXECUTED

  Mar 28 2003

  By Stephen Moyes and James Hardy

  THE heartbroken sister of ambushed soldier Luke Allsopp insisted last night: "My brother was not executed." Nina Allsopp hit out at "lies" surrounding his death. Grieving Nina - 29 today - said: "We have been told by the Army that Luke died in action. VICTIM: Luke "The Colonel from his barracks came around to our house to tell us he was not executed. Luke's Land Rover was ambushed and he died instantly. "The Colonel told us he was doing what he could to set the record straight. We are very angry. "It makes a big difference to us knowing that he died quickly. We can't understand why people are lying about what happened. "It must be a mistake. It's important to us that people know the truth. That people know what really happened." Nina was stunned when she heard the PM had gone on TV to denounce the "executions" of Sapper Luke, 24, and Staff Sgt Simon Cullingworth, 36. Mr Blair, speaking in America, condemned gruesome footage of the dead soldiers shown on Iraqi TV as an act of cruelty beyond comprehension. Describing the images as a "reality" of Saddam Hussein's regime he said: "His thugs prepared to kill their own people, the parading of prisoners of war, and now the release of those pictures of executed British soldiers... "If anyone needed any further evidence of the depravity of Saddam's regime, this atrocity provides it. "It is yet one more flagrant breach of all the proper conventions of war. "More than that, to the families of the soldiers involved, it is an act of cruelty beyond comprehension. Indeed, it is beyond the comprehension of anyone with an ounce of humanity in their souls." VICTIM: Staff Sgt Simon Cullingworth's job was to clear mines laid by retreating Iraqis The PM added: "On behalf of the British Government, I would like to offer my condolences particularly to the families and friends of those two brave young men who died in the service of their country and of the ordinary Iraqi people to whom we are determined to bring a better future." And today Downing Street insisted the soldiers"may well have been" executed. (More...) But last night Nina said at the family's home in Dagenham, Essex: "I have not been able to watch the TV reports or listen to the Prime Minister talking of an execution. "It's so upsetting. And it's not what happened to Luke." Later Mr Blair refused to give further details of what he knew about the soldiers' deaths. Pressed by reporters about his claim they were executed, he would only say: "The reason I used the language I did was because of the circumstances that we know." Respected TV political editor Adam Boulton was one of those who quizzed Mr Blair at Camp David over his claim. He commented on Sky News last night: "Whether it was wise for the Prime Minister to use a word like 'execute' without being entirely sure only time will tell." Mr Blair's official spokesman later admitted there was no conclusive proof that the soldiers had been executed. He said: "It is a terrible thing to talk in these terms, but since we don't have the two bodies we can't be absolutely sure. "But every piece of information we have points in the direction of these men having been executed in a very brutal fashion. "It includes the fact that the two bodies were found some distance from the vehicles in which they were travelling and had lost their protective equipment, flak jackets and helmets. It does point in that direction." ANGER: Tony Blair yesterday A spokeswoman for the MoD agreed that it was likely the soldiers had been executed. She said: "They were found without their protective equipment, which suggests they could have been executed." But Iraq strongly denied the claim. Information Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahaf accused Mr Blair of twisting the truth. He said when Iraq released pictures of the soldiers "the situation became tense in Britain because the British Prime Minister lied to the public". He added: "To launch a psychological war on us he said, 'You have executed (them)'. "We haven't executed anyone. They are either killed in the battlefield or the rest are captured." Iraqi TV showed the dead soldiers lying on their backs near their vehicle. One appeared to have been shot in the chest while the other's wounds were unclear. British military commanders were "shocked and appalled" by the graphic images. The commander of UK forces in the Gulf, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, described the decision to show them as "deplorable". He added: "All media must be aware of the limits of taste and decency." Sapper Luke and Staff Sgt Cullingworth were members of 33 Engineer Regiment - a bomb disposal unit of the Royal Engineers based at Carver Barracks, Wimbish, Essex. They were killed after their Land Rover was ambushed in the border town of Safwan, Southern Iraq. Their role was to clear mines laid by the retreating Iraqi army. They were on their way to join colleagues sweeping for booby traps when they were attacked. Staff Sgt Cullingworth and his wife Allison had been married for almost 10 years. They have two sons - James, nine, and three-year-old Jack. The popular soldier had been on tours of duty in other trouble spots, including the Balkans and Afghanistan. Sapper Luke had not seen action before, although he had served in Kenya and Cyprus. Last night his long-term girlfriend Katie was being comforted by family and friends. Sister Nina recalled last night how their mum, Christine, who died of cancer seven months ago, always called him her "little soldier". Luke's step-father Michael Pawsey said: "The Army brought his wonderful character to the fore. "Before signing up a couple of years ago, he was a car mechanic and glorified panel beater. "He loved everything about his new job - the camaraderie and sense of achievement. The feeling that he was serving his country. "Going to the Gulf, he was doing what he wanted to do. We are numb at the news. But so, so proud of him."
• 
  15

  Miscellaneous Tidbits You Should Be Aware Of...

  by reporter in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  .

  ok, now we are preparing for dhs code red...if that happens, don't dare come to pick up your kids!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  reporter
• 
  15

  Miscellaneous Tidbits You Should Be Aware Of...

  by reporter in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  .

  ok, now we are preparing for dhs code red...if that happens, don't dare come to pick up your kids!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  reporter

  Ohhhh, I'm patient as the day is long ... oops they did discover this: not WMD necessarily, but "probibited ordinance"...

  Troops Find Missile Arsenal

  March 24, 2003
  From a correspondent with British troops near Basra
  
  BRITISH troops outside Basra have discovered cruise missiles and warheads hidden inside fortified bunkers as part of a massive arsenal abandoned by Saddam Hussein's disintegrating southern army.
  Cases of rockets, giant anti-shipping mines and other ammunition were piled from floor to ceiling in dozens of bunkers at what is marked on maps as the Az Zubaya Heliport.
  
  The most disturbing find was two Russian-made Al-Harith anti-shipping cruise missiles, each 6m long and 1m in diameter, and nine warheads, hidden in two enormous reinforced concrete bunkers.
  
  Another missile, as yet unidentified, was found still crated up at the rear of one of the bunkers.
  
  Some of the boxes were clearly marked with the names of British manufacturers.
  
  The scale and possible implications of the weapons find took British forces by surprise and has raised fresh questions about the extent of the Iraqi war machine and the ability of weapons inspectors to cope with the task of scouring such a vast country for prohibited ordnance.
  
  The discovery of the missiles - date-marked 2002 - came as British troops from the Black Watch Regiment fought to secure the area around Iraqi's second city, Basra, in preparation for its capture.
  
  The vast complex, surrounded by chainlink fence and barbed wire, was found to the southwest of the town, defended by a network of earth works and with tanks and other armoured vehicles dug in to the surrounding area.
  
  The defenders had fled after coming under attack from coalition forces.
  
  Outside the perimeter fence were about 40 bunkers packed with a mixture of RPGs and other ammunition.
  
  Inside, 22 larger fortified bunkers contained larger weaponry including the Al-Harith missiles.
  
  The missiles, with Al-Harith 2002 stencilled in red paint on the side, and covered with cyrillic writing, were housed in 20m-long concrete bunkers, 8m high, buried under earth and protected by sliding steel double doors 30cm thick.
  
  Painted grey, the missiles had two wings, each about 60cm in span and three tail fins of a similar size.
  
  There was no indication of the nature of the warheads fitted and experts were called in to examine the find.
  
  Also housed inside the reinforced bunkers were what appeared to be large anti-shipping mines, 1m in diameter, and a host of other munitions.
  On one box, written in English, were the words: "Contract AS Navy. 5/1980 Iran."
  
  Corporal Steven Airzee said: "The initial sight was a shock. We were trying to figure out what they were.
  
  "You have to wonder whether the weapons inspectors have been there because they looked pretty big."
  
  The entrance to the heliport was decorated with a picture of Saddam Hussein in military uniform.
  
  The area was surrounded by wrecked vehicles and abandoned sandbagged fox holes, some flying white flags, and was overlooked by a network of watch towers. -- (oh boy!)
  
  There were fears that weapons could have been taken from some of the bunkers lying outside the perimeter fence.
  
  Lieutenant Angus Watson said: "The complex is massive and we were surprised to find a lot of the kit intact, easily enough for a whole brigade."
  
  The troops also discovered hundreds of leaflets lying on the floor, dropped by coalition planes, urging the defenders to surrender.
  
  The leaflets, and evidence of an aerial or artillery attack, appeared to have persuaded the Iraqis to abandon their posts without a fight.
  
  Agence France-Presse
  http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6178105%255E1702,00.html
• 
  15

  Miscellaneous Tidbits You Should Be Aware Of...

  by reporter in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  .

  ok, now we are preparing for dhs code red...if that happens, don't dare come to pick up your kids!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  reporter

  World News March 17, 2003 Israeli special forces join 'secret front' in Jordan By Ian Cobain and Stephen Farrell AS HUNDREDS of thousands of men and machines mass in Kuwait, a highly secretive military build-up is also under way on President Saddam Hussein’s western flank. Special forces from the United States and Britain have begun to conduct long-range reconnaissance missions from their bases along the 113-mile border between Iraq and Jordan, military sources have told The Times. Remarkably, Israeli forces are also said to be involved. Jordan is highly sensitive about military activity in a swath of land 50 miles deep along its border with Iraq, where residents talk of the rumble of transport aircraft landing at remote airstrips. Jordan acknowledges that American troops are there, but insists they are to defend its own territory and airspace. One Western military expert said yesterday: “It is a very discreet operation, but the special forces are certainly there. You may not see any tanks dashing across the border from Jordan when the war begins, but there will be significant special forces activity. “These forces are already providing targeting information on Iraqi assets — so called Scud-hunting — and as they push east towards Baghdad, you can expect to see a very fluid front line.” The secrecy has two objectives: to keep Iraq guessing and to avoid provoking a Jordanian population bitterly opposed to the coming war. On Saturday, about 5,000 people chanted “no to foreign troops in Jordan” as they demonstrated in Amman. The US Air Force is already targeting Iraqi positions in the western desert and on Friday a B1B bomber was used for the first time to attack an installation just across the border. At least 5,000 US troops are already in Jordan, according to an official source in Amman. One Western diplomat in the capital said, however, that the true figure was nearer 7,000. Thousands more are expected to arrive soon, and although some will be training Jordanian Armed Forces and manning the three Patriot anti-missile batteries defending Amman and the northern city of Irbid, about half are thought to be special forces troops. Marwan Muasher, Jordan’s Foreign Minister, conceded last week that the number of foreign troops may have risen to 2,000 or 3,000. “We are not denying that there are special forces troops in Jordan, we are not denying that there are US troops in Jordan . . . but I want to make it absolutely clear that their presence is for purely defensive purposes,” he said. “There are no troops for any offensive operations, and there are no troops in the tens of thousands, as has been reported in the press. “We have made it clear that we are not participating in this war.” Scattered among the Americans are an estimated 100 British special forces troops, some of whom are thought to be from the Royal Marines’ Special Boat Service (SBS), the Marines’ equivalent of the SAS. Intriguingly, members of Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s commando force, are also said by Western military experts to have carried out covert reconnaissance operations inside the Western Iraqi desert. They are thought to be pre-empting a repeat of the first Gulf War when Saddam fired 39 Scuds at Israel. In return for its political gamble, Washington has promised Jordan an economic aid package worth hundreds of millions of dollars or more, according to one official source in Amman. King Abdullah has said that he is confident that Jordanians will benefit “economically, politically and strategically” from the pragmatic position that he is taking. But the official source added: “We wish we had a more understanding public.”