Hello Times

Ive seen your article on the market bombing in bangdad:

 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3287373.ece?Submitted=true

in which we learn:
'We found the mobiles used to detonate the women,” Major-General Qassim Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, said. He said that both women had Down’s syndrome. '

Government sources?

'Iraqi and American officials blamed al-Qaeda, and accused the terrorist organisation of plumbing new depths of depravity. '

Now what wrong with this story? Well, what you dont report is this:

'But a police official told McClatchy Newspapers that authorities were still investigating whether the explosion at the second market might have come from a bomb hidden in a cage or a box of eggs.'
 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2004159900_iraq02.html

Youd never know that from your article! Looking at the emotional comments, i see the article has done its work.

Now to use a foreign military occupier and a Major-General Qassim Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, as sources of information in what is a police matter is really dodgy journalism! Indeed, it sounds like propaganda. Why is the police story not mentioned? The McClatchy newspapers mentioned...Its there in the Seattletimes!

Downs sydrome women? Greg Mitchell has more information:
'Iraqi officials are sticking to the Down's syndrome claim, but McClatchy now reports: "However, Bob Lamburne, director of forensic services for the British embassy in Baghdad, cautioned that suggesting the two bombers suffered from Down syndrome based on photographs of their severed heads was 'dangerous.' He noted that the heads would have suffered massive trauma when the bombers' explosives detonated. 'The diagnosis would have to be more scientific than that,' said Lamburne."
 http://gregmitchellwriter.blogspot.com/2008/02/print-headline-then-let-fact-catch-up.html '

Was the reason for the 'Downs Syndrome women that its necessary to explain why women with bomb belts wouldnt appear nervous and hysterical? the women were described as:

'One witness, Mohammed Qasem, 35, a vendor at al-Ghazl, said he saw
the woman minutes before the explosion, apparently behaving normally.
"She was guiding a small kid with her, and she wasn't uncomfortable at
all," he said.
 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2004159900_iraq02.html

Behaving normally?

'A mobile phone rang incessantly amid the shoes, prayer beads, identity cards and other debris. Sunni fundamentalists consider the selling of pets to be haram — forbidden on religious grounds'
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3287373.ece?Submitted=true

is this why that place was bombed? Or is this just an attempt to link the bombing to sunnis? Isnt this dishonest? To use innuendo?

SO, who else kills people. What other suspects are there?

Iraq has death squads:
'Iraq's interior minister has admitted death squads and other unauthorised armed groups have been carrying out sectarian killings in the country. '
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4901786.stm

John Pilger has this to say:
'This is the campaign of terror by death squads armed and trained by the US, which attack Sunnis and Shias alike. The goal is the incitement of a real civil war and the break-up of Iraq, the original war aim of Bush's administration'
 http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=175

So, who really bombed those markets? AMSI has this interesting testimony:
'
The former collaborator said that the Americans have a unit for "dirty jobs." That unit is a mix of Iraqis, Americans, and foreigners and of the security detachments that are deployed in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. This unit doesn’t only carry out assassinations, but some of them specialize in planting bombs and car bombs in neighborhoods and markets. This unit carries out operations in which wanted people whom the American army does not want killed are arrested.

The former collaborator said that "operations of planting car bombs and blowing up explosives in markets are carried out in various ways, the best-known and most famous among the US troops is placing a bomb inside cars as they are being searched at checkpoints. Another way is to put bombs in the cars during interrogations. After the desired person is summoned to one of the US bases, a bomb is place in his car and he is asked to drive to a police station or a marked for some purpose and there his car blows up."
 http://www.heyetnet.org/en/content/view/490/27/

So maybe it wasnt Downs syndrome women who unwittingly blew up those markets. But youd never know by reading the Timesonline!

regards
Brian Souter