quote:

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In what is considered the largest mass abduction in U.S.-occupied Iraq, gunmen wearing police commando uniforms rounded up as many as 150 people from a research institute in downtown Baghdad on Tuesday.

Iraqi security officials inspect the reception area at the scientific research institute in Baghdad where gunmen in Iraqi police commando uniforms rounded up and carried off as many as 150 people.

Witnesses said the gunmen worked from lists of names as they handcuffed some people, forced them into the backs of pickup trucks and drove them away.

Police spokesman Maj. Mahir Hamad said about 80 gunmen closed off surrounding streets before they went into the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Scholarships and Cultural Relations Directorate at about 9:30 a.m. local time.

Four guards at the institute were not able to stop the attack and were not harmed, he said.

"It was quick operation. It took about 10 to 15 minutes," said Iraq's higher education minister Abed Theyab. "It was a four-storey building and the gunmen went to the four storeys."

Immediately following the kidnapping, Theyab ordered the country's universities to close until the security situation improves.

"I am not ready to see more professors get killed," Theyab told parliament. "I have only one choice, which is to suspend classes at universities. We have no other choice."

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a) The forces whom presume themselves to be the law, are incapable of preserving the law, and that insurgents are more or less in control of the city;

b) That the forces whom presume themselves to be the law, are in fact the perpetrators.

One is as likely as the other, and in fact;

c) a combination of "a" and "b" is as likely as either of the former.

[ 14 November 2006: Message edited by: Cueball ]