Update: U.S. says the speech may be an old one.

This from Reuters.... Hussein Makes Televised Speech

Monday, Mar 24, 2003; 3:21 AM

BAGHDAD, March 24 (Reuters) - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, dressed in a military uniform, appeared on state television on Monday and hailed the Iraqi military on the fifth day of a U.S.-led invasion to overthrow him.

"We made a lot of sacrifices to avert war," Saddam said, praising the "valiant" contribution of the Iraqi military in resisting a U.S. and British war against Iraq that began on Thursday.

He said the invasion forces were "trapped" by heroic Iraqi resistance.

Reuters correspondents in Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East said they were confident that the man appearing on live television was Hussein. The Iraqi leader has a handful of lookalikes who sometimes stand in for him.

Speculation has abounded about Hussein's fate since the war started with air strikes on Baghdad intended to kill him. Some reports said he was dead, others that he was so badly wounded he had to receive a blood transfusion.

Within three hours of the first U.S.-led attack on Baghdad on Thursday, a tired-looking Hussein appeared on television, in a military uniform, urging his people to fight. But the CIA says it could have been pre-recorded -- even though he referred in the address to the start of the raid at dawn.

Lisa English of Ruminate This is really angry at Bush at the fate of the detainees:

If one follicle is touched on the head of any American service personnel in captivity, we can blame the new war policies of our terrorist president, George Bush. It's really not a hard one to figure out, and so one begins to wonder about the collective sanity of this administration. Is it mental illness or just another case of stunning neoconservative hubris? You decide. Since when is this Administration so damn concerned about adhering to the tenets of the Geneva Convention?

We've written about the U.S. and torture of Al Qaeda captives several times--take a look at of there's our prior post, Torture Lite. Or these, about torture and homicides at Bagram Air Base which is under U.S. military control.

Yes, we know the difference according to the Administration between enemy combatants and prisoners of war. The Administration argues that Al Qaeda members don't qualify because they don't have these qualifications: (1) being under a responsible command; (2) having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance; (3) carrying arms openly; and (4) conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war. At times they have included the qualification of wearing a military uniform. Back last February, Bush said the Taliban and Al Qaeda were enemy combatants. After a lot of heat, he revised his position to recognize that Taliban soldiers were entitled to POW protections but not Al Qaeda. This Administration has been making up the rules as it goes along and refuses to concede that enemy combatants are entitled to judicial review of its decision.

"Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention states that if there is "any doubt" as to whether captured combatants should be recognized as POWs, "such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal." In other words, if doubt exists, the status of each detainee must be determined individually, not by a blanket decision of the President."

"Even if not technically prisoners of war, al Qaeda and Taliban captives still qualify for "humane treatment" under the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1988."

We believe in treating all prisoners as human beings and with dignity. As we said here, "If we treat the citizens of other countries this way, why won't these other countries retaliate with similar or harsher treatment when they capture members of our military?" Don't we reap what we sow?

The Iraq Ambassador said today that POWs won't be mistreated and that Iraq will follow the Geneva Convention.

UPI is reporting that Saddam Hussein chaired an emergency meeting with senior military officers and government officials.

Matthew at Untelevised.Org has some thoughtful and harsh words for the media and its capitulation to the Bush Administration in its war coverage.

Sean Paul at the The Agonist has put up the link to the still pictures of the five captured Amercian soldiers shown on Al Jazeera television. Viewers beware, we looked and we are somewhat sorry we did.

We're just appalled that we put our youth in such harm's way. But, we're mentioning it because after viewing the photos, our resolve to protest this unjustified, preemptive war was strengthened --as was our desire to oust the Bush/Rumsfeld/Ashcroft regime in 2004. We hope viewing them will do the same for others with anti-war leanings, and even convert a few who don't. We're not reposting the link to the photos themselves, just the link to Sean Paul and Hesiod at Counterspin who also has it up. Oliver Willis has exceptionally clear photos up. Again, viewers beware.

"President Bush plans to tell congressional leaders on Monday that the war in Iraq will cost about $80 billion, administration officials said, three days after both chambers of Congress passed budget plans and authorized tax cuts without three days after both chambers of Congress passed budget plans and authorized tax cuts without a war-cost estimate from the administration."

The amount "includes about $60 billion for combat and the first months of reconstruction, with the rest going to foreign aid, homeland security and humanitarian relief. "

Twelve U.S. soldiers are believed to have been captured in an ambush on a convoy today near the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya, in what U.S. military officials called the toughest day of resistance in the war so far. ABC reports that

...the group, made up of maintenance workers, was part of a supply convoy that is believed to have taken a wrong turn outside Nasiriya while on a mission to carry out repair work.

They were traveling in a column of six vehicles that encountered a roadblock and came under heavy fire. A number of others were wounded in the attack and evacuated by helicopter, military officials said....

Shortly after news of the capture came, video footage of what was said to be dead and captured American soldiers was aired on the Arab al Jazeera network and Iraqi state television.

At least five American soldiers appeared in the video footage — four men and one woman, some of whom appeared to be wounded. They were asked to give their names, home states, and state whether they were Americans.

Also, a U.S. miltary plane has crashed in Afganistan killing six.

A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Afghanistan on Sunday, killing all six military personnel on board, U.S. Central Command said. "The crash was not the result of enemy action," Central Command said in a statement. The helicopter was conducting a "medical evacuation mission," it said. The HH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed 18 miles north of Ghazni, Afghanistan, at about 11:20 a.m. EST, Central Command said. The cause was under investigation. The names of those who died were being withheld pending notification of their families.

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has acknowledged American soldiers are missing in Iraq.

The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera aired footage from Iraqi television of interviews with what the station identified as captured American prisoners, and also showed bodies in uniform in an Iraqi morgue that it said were Americans. A senior defense official said Pentagon officials did not know precisely how many Americans had been captured. The official declined to identify the unit involved so as not to cause panic among soldiers' families.

Rumsfeld said there could also be captured journalists. On the Al Jazeera tape,

On the tape, one prisoner said he was from Kansas and another said he was from Texas. Asked why he was fighting Iraqis, the soldier who said he was from Kansas replied: "They don't bother me; I don't bother them."

Rumsfeld also said he personally believes saddam is dead.

We're going to use this space to post some of the overseas war news we read for a day or so. We want to see if it's the same or different than the reporting we're getting from the embedded journalists. All descriptions are direct quotes from the articles. This is an experiment--we really don't know the outcome, and if we're wrong, we'll say so.

Marines in Firefight: US Marines and Iraqi soldiers have been involved in a fierce firefight in Umm Qasr - a day after the Allies claimed the town had been taken. The Marines were ambushed at a temporary camp set up in the strategically important port town in southern Iraq.

British TV Crew Missing: Missing British TV reporter Terry Lloyd and two of his news crew may have been hit in crossfire from coalition forces in Iraq, it has been reported. More here.

Exodus in Northern Iraq:Up to 500,000 people in northern Iraq have fled their homes ahead of the US-led invasion - and the movement is continuing, a UN aid agency has said.

Seven Die in MidAir Collision: Seven military personnel have died in a midair helicopter collision over water in the northern Gulf region. (Six Britons, One American)

Desert Rats in Fierce Fighting: Coalition forces faced fiercer opposition than expected throughout southern Iraq and their commander, the American general Tommy Franks, warned: “There may well be tough days ahead.”

You are welcome to use the comments to add more articles, but please, don't just post the urls, use the html format--otherwise the whole site gets skewed. Instructions are in the comment box.

An American G.I. has been arrested in connection with the grenade attack inside a tent at Camp Pennsylvania, where the 101st Airborne is presently headquartered, in Northern Kuwait. 13 soldiers were injured, some seriously enough to require airlifting out by helicopters.

The soldier has not been identified because he was also injured in the attack and rules provide that family of injured soldiers must be notified first. CBS, Fox and SkyNews reported the soldier is an African American Muslim.

NBC had a reporter on who said the soldier had been acting strange the past few days and he was being watched. A decision had been made to leave him behind. CNN said the attack was directed at the tent commander.

The embedded reporters saw and know a lot more but are being prohibited from talking about it freely. Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon on CNN said there's a name for this, "fragging." It's a well-know technique but one that hasn't been used much with a volunteer military.

Lisa English of Ruminate This asks a key question:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we've been led to understand that Iraq presented such a clear and present danger to American interests an ocean away, that George Bush felt compelled to attack without UN authorization. We needed to rid Iraq of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

That is why we are leveling Baghdad, isn't it? It's why we are destroying families and turning formerly parented children into orphans. It's why we've thumbed our nose at the international community and walked away from diplomacy. It's why we continue, as I type, to chance fear in the hearts of all sensible people, the world over....

All because we know there are weapons of mass destruction that sit ...silently...waiting to do us harm.

Right? Well, if that be the case, then please explain why it is that Iraq has yet to use these weapons. They've yet to meet devastating American force in kind.

Why not? What are they waiting for? Could it be that George Bush was wrong?

Here's an update on today's worldwide anti-war protests. Here's more.

New York: More than 100,000 anti-war demonstrators marched down Broadway this afternoon in what is estimated to be the largest anti-war rally the city has seen since the situation with Iraq first escalated. Live video is here. More coverage here .

If you have DirectTV satilite you can find some un-censored US news on channel 375. If you know someone who's been arrested, here is the NY Civil Liberties Union's summary of New York protester rights.

London: The march through the capital, culminating in an afternoon of speeches in Hyde Park, attracted a crowd of about 200,000 people, according to a police estimate.

Los Angeles: Skippy is on it, he's there right now, check his site frequently for updates. Hard news here.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp has confirmed that one of its freelance cameramen has been killed . Reporters Without Borders said the as yet unidentified cameraman was killed

... in an attack Kurdish officials blamed on a militant Islamic group, Ansar al-Islam, which Washington has linked with the al-Qaeda network.

"He was a freelancer, an Australian cameraman on assignment for the ABC. He was killed in a suicide bombing, the attack is apparently being blamed on an Islamic militant group," a spokeswoman told Reuters.

....The Paris media body said a photographer who witnessed the attack had said it appeared to be aimed at the many journalists present at the time.