Booby trapped pencils?

#1 Wed, 2 Apr 2003 - 11:38

link

Quote:

[Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf] also said that coalition forces were throwing booby traps in the form of pens and pencils into Iraqi villages and townships.

"The authority of the civil defense ... issued a warning to the civilian population not to pick up any of those pencils because they are booby traps," he said, adding that the British and American forces were "immoral mercenaries" and "war criminals" for such behavior.

"I am not talking about the American people and the British people," he said. "I am talking about those mercenaries. ... They have started throwing those pencils, but they are not pencils, they are booby traps to kill the children."

WTF?

#2 Wed, 2 Apr 2003 - 11:42

Despiration, perhaps?

#3 Wed, 2 Apr 2003 - 11:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Logic:
Despiration, perhaps?

And THAT is the best they can come up with? My 5 year-old nephew has a better imagination than that!

#4 Wed, 2 Apr 2003 - 11:47

Quote:

Originally posted by boots:
And THAT is the best they can come up with? My 5 year-old nephew has a better imagination than that!

Agreed, it sounds ridiculous. They should have come up with something better than that. Like maybe say that the leaflets dropped are soaked in LSD or something like that

#5 Wed, 2 Apr 2003 - 11:51

Quote:

Originally posted by Logic:
Agreed, it sounds ridiculous. They should have come up with something better than that. Like maybe say that the leaflets dropped are soaked in LSD or something like that

That might be more believable since Iraq supposedly developed hallucinogenic substances like LSD to disorient enemy troops during battle. link

Quote:

He added that Iraq's exotic weapons programs also involved the use of psycho-tropic agents similar to LSD. ?They were not meant to kill, just incapacitate, confuse,? says the inspector. This had been designed, he says, as a means to fight off rag-tag Iranian forces in the late 1980?s during the long war between Baghdad and Tehran. The other WMD weapons Iraq may still have were initially designed to ?fight off Iranian human wave attacks, they really weren't meant against a force like the U.S. military.?

What is the standard issue pencil in the military anyway? #2 lead?

#6 Wed, 2 Apr 2003 - 11:52

Quote:

Yes, that would be clever. And weaken the colalition forces strengths - trying to collect all those dropped leaflets themselves instead of fighting.

#7 Wed, 2 Apr 2003 - 12:18

I've heard the slogan "Books not Bombs..." but pencils?

Also, if we did replace bombs with books, a dictionary would do major damage from 20,000 feet. Not very accurate though.