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From: steve@caticsuf.csufresno.edu (Steve Mitchell)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: NorTel Gets US Military Order (and "AT&T" Building in Baghdad)
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Date: 24 Jan 91 17:33:28 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 64, Message 3 of 10


eastick@me.utoronto.ca (Doug Eastick) wrote:

>>Whitley, commander of the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, told the media
>>Friday that the first air strike against Iraq was a 2,000-pound bomb
>>dropped squarely onto the "AT&T building" in downtown Baghdad.

> I heard (on the CBC, I think) that it was a "PTT" building.  I can't
> remember what the letters stood for, though.

According to a report on National Public Radio's morning news program
"Morning Edition" (1/23), the building being shown bombed by a F-117A
Stealth Fighter/Bomber was the Baghdad "Public Telephone & Telegraph"
building.  This building, according to telecom professionals in Saudi
Arabia, should have been staffed by 10 to 20 civilian technicians and
operators at the time of the attack (pre-dawn/early morning). 

Because of the F-117's stealth capabilities, it is not believed that
the occupants of the building would have heard or seen any signs of
warning until the 2,000 bound bomb struck the building.  They did not
mention whether military personnel would have been staffing the
building in part.  However, they did report that the Iraqi's most
valuable lines of military communication and switching would have been
located under the building and immune to the effects of the attack
which, apparently, was meant to decapitate it's top two of twelve
stories in order to render the microwave equipment on the roof useless.

Professional Comment:

Unquestionably, civilian telecom equipment can be a valuable military
asset to any country.  The fact that redundant military communications
systems were, undoubtably, in place and are possibly still operational
does not make civilian telecom facilities any less of a valuable
channel of command and control to the enemy's military infrastructure.

Personal Comment:

I find it ironic that, in our humanitarian gesture towards the people
of the Arabian Peninsula, the first casualties in the conflict may have
been civilian professionals like you and I.  The contradictions in the
philosophies of modern warfare, in terms of their goals and their
means, abound.


Steve_Mitchell@csufresno.edu