The pic claiming to be the "masses" of 20-30 or so surrounding the photos can be found at the www.informationclearinghouse.info website, along with the relevant story and much other information.

I can't wholeheartedly recommend the site - it has a very pronounced bias - but the picture DOES fit with what little "distance" shots are available of the statue toppling, and some of the other points they bring up (specifically that they spotted at least one person in the crowd bearing a VERY strong resemblance to a member the US puppet resistance group we flew in) are troubling.

With that, and everything else I've seen about the incident, I'm inclined to believe that the "celebration" was a press photo opp, staged for the benefit of the cameras. The "perimeter control" that appears to be going on (note the heavy traffic jam being held back by a tank in the upper left of the photo) leads me to suspect that regardless of anything else, the local command spotted an opportunity and wasn't going to let a potential unknown - the actual local mood, and the potential angry rants by relatives of the "acceptibe losses" - spoil what otherwise is a great (though falsified) PR coup.

In other news - hands up anyone who's suprised that India is claiming right of pre-emptive strike against Pakistan?

Reaping what is sown, part II

Favorite quote:
"Fernandes said he endorsed Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha's recent comments that India had "a much better case to go for pre-emptive action against Pakistan than the United States has in Iraq."

This is two known nuclear powers soon to be slugging it out here. Who says comedy isn't alive in international affairs? And who else is just rolling on the floor laughing at the ranks of "unnamed foreign dignitaries" all announcing that they feel nuclear proliferation is now the ONLY way to guarantee national sovereignity?

Ah, the joys of warmongering. I think I'll go make a homemade explosive and blow my neighbor up - he's harboring roaches that invade my sovereign space, and I'm pretty certain this is only the first step before he tries moving in to my apartment and killing me.

M