Speaking of maps, Le Monde has a great interactive map that gives events in Baghdad since April 3 with an hour-by-hour rundown of events. On Le Monde’s homepage, just below the picture, choose Infographie: les forces américaines à Bagdad. It helps if you can read French, but the graphics tell a lot.

The US & UK forces in Iraq have so far failed to find definitive evidence of chemical or biological weapons that were the focus of UN inspections. Of course, there will be plenty of time to scour the country and the records of the Baathist regime. It is likely that something will be found to vindicate those who pressed so hard for this war. Al Jazeera today raised the spectre that the US will fabricate evidence. However, I think it is unlikely that the US will need to fabricate such evidence. This is not because I think they will definitely find chemical or biological weapons, though I think it is likely. Rather, I think that the necessity for finding these weapons has diminished since the war started. That is, I don’t think the neo-cons that started the war really care whether Iraq had such weapons. The fear of so-called weapons of mass destruction was important when the US was looking for UN legitimacy, but this importance disappeared when Bush and the neo-cons abandoned the UN route. The need to find such weapons is even less important now that crowds of Iraqis are cheering American troops in Baghdad. I suppose this is the backside advantage of having a disjointed argument upfront for why we should go to war. The Bush regime put so many unrelated arguments forward for why we should go to war that, if one of them pans out, the war gets ex post facto legitimacy.

April 9 - Wednesday
In Baghdad
US tanks drove unhindered into public squares on the eastern bank of the Tigris for the first time. An American armoured vehicle helped a crowd of cheering Iraqis to pull down a huge statue of Saddam Hussein in the al-Fardus square. Dozens of exultant people leapt on the deposed figure and stamped on it, shouting "Death to Saddam!". People have attached the old Iraqi flag to the pedestal.
Andrew Gilligan :: 0840GMT Jubilant crowds chanting pro-American and anti-Saddam slogans have appeared on the streets. Flowers have been thrown at US tanks and even where there are no Americans to be seen, in the Shia suburbs to the north, people have clearly decided the regime is finished. Spontaneous demonstrations as well as looting and disorder have broken out. Saddam pictures are being torn up and there seem no Iraqi forces to stop it. Our own government minders never turned up for work this morning, another part of the regime that has simply vanished. Other members of the regime are quietly shredding their government identity cards. In the north in the Sunni neighborhoods, the troops have had to fight their way into the outskirts.
Andrew Gilligan :: 1432GMT I want to talk to you about my favourite Saddam statues, in anticipation they may not be here for much longer. One of my favourites is a moody looking Saddam on a tall plinth. And there are tiny little models of Mrs Thatcher, George Bush Senior and the President of France, Jaqcues Chirac cringing at his feet.
Andrew Gilligan :: 1625GMT People are rushing up to tell us how much they hate Saddam. It has become as taboo now to like him as it was to hate him 24 hours ago.
There are no Iraqi soldiers on the streets or Iraqi policemen,- they have disappeared from this part of town. We have heard this morning the sound of sporadic machine gun fire from somewhere quite close to us. That could be the die-hards, the true believers, the most loyal of the loyal putting up a last ditch resistance.
Crowds in Baghdad are saying they are glad that Saddam Hussein is gone or going - but they don't like the Americans , and what they want is to be able to rule their own lives.

Marines secured the area around the Martyrs Monument as U.S. forces moved into the center of Baghdad. The 1st Marine Division advanced towards the headquarters of the Fedayeen in Baghdad
Canadian Red Cross worker is dead after his car was hit by gunfire on Tuesday. International Committee of the Red Cross has halted work in Baghdad
Baghdad University: AP reports heavy fighting around the school's campus, located on the Tigris River south of the city's center.
Lebanese television has reported that Saddam Hussein is in the safety of the Russian embassy. A Russian delegation that came under fire from US forces as it left

Where's Saddam?
Baghdad on 7 April may have been dealing with senior representatives of the Iraqi government in guaranteeing a safe exit for Saddam Hussein. Russian intelligence has officially denied reports that the diplomats took with them Saddam’s secret archive as they left Baghdad. A Russian general said this allegation was being made to justify the US attack on the diplomatic convoy last week. However, general said his claims were based on the cooperation of Saddam and a group of his close officials with the United States during the Iran-Iraq war and encouragement for Saddam to invade Kuwait in 1991.

Kurdistan and North of Baghdad
An American F-15E fighter jet crashed near Tikrit on Monday. Central Command said it was investigating the cause of the crash and rescue crews were searching Wednesday for the crew.
Special Operations Forces were "actively engaging" Iraqi forces in Tikrit, Centcom said.
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan claimed on Tuesday that Saddam was hiding in Tikrit. Tikrit is a power center for Sunni Arab tribes that may hold out for as long as possible out of fear of losing power to the nation's Shiite majority.
A few burnt out trucks litter the newly taken positions on the Maqlub mountains. The overnight retreat was the result of heavy US bombing.
Turks have built up their forces along their border with Northern Iraq but are not moving.

Basra and South of Baghdad
3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division occupied Hillah today in central Iraq.
In Basra people are saying “a week ago we had order in our city, we had water, an administrative structure, and now the British have come and its descended into chaos.”
Talks will soon be held with exiled Iraqis and local leaders near the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya to begin planning for an interim Iraqi government. Iraqi Free Forces (armed and trained by US Army) are patrolling in Nasiriyah.

Outside Iraq
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says Syria has been ignoring a warning he gave last week about giving military assistance to Iraq and that some senior Iraqis were fleeing to Syria. [Does the increasingly hostile rhetoric towards Syria and Iran mean that now that a Neo-con victory in Iraq is inevitable that they want to widen the war? After all, we have a whole division that hasn’t even arrived yet. Can anyone say Cambodia, kids? Sure, I knew you could. – Ed.]
Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, says "the game is over" and he hopes the Iraqi people soon will be able to live in peace. It is the first admission that Saddam Hussein no longer controls Baghdad.
With the US-led war to change the government of Iraq all but over there is still little sign of the weapons of mass destruction for which this campaign was fought. The concern lies in the possibility that the United States would present false evidence to prove that its decision to go to war was right. – Al Jazeera