 |
HavenWorks.com/military/archive/2004 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/ 
/ Archive
/ 2004
- 
Robots
- "Army
to deploy robots that shoot: Next year, the U.S.
Army will give robots machine guns, although humans will firmly be in control
of them." ... "The Army next March will begin to deploy Talon robots from
Waltham, Mass.-based Foster-Miller.
The robots will be mounted with M240 or M249 machine guns, said a Foster-Miller
spokesman. The units also can be mounted with a rocket launcher. Defense
agencies have been testing an armed version of the Talon since 2003." -By
Michael Kanellos -CNETNews
via -ZDNetNews
- 
- Pat
Robertson - "Bush
Predicted No Iraq Casualties, Robertson Says." ...
"The Rev. Pat Robertson said President Bush dismissed his warning that
the United States would suffer heavy casualties in Iraq and told the television
evangelist just before the beginning of the war that "we're not going to
have any casualties."" ... "Robertson related the conversation during an
interview with CNN late Tuesday. He said he spoke to Bush before the invasion
of Iraq in March 2003 and urged him to prepare the nation for heavy casualties.
While Bush's response was a mistake, Robertson said, God has blessed the
president anyhow." -By Alan Cooperman-WashingtonPost
Larry
Franklin - 
Douglas
Feith - 
Criminal
Investigation - US
- 
Israel
- 
Italy
- 
Iran
- Military
- 
Intelligence
- 
History
- "Iran-Contra
II? Fresh scrutiny on a rogue Pentagon operation."
... "On Friday evening, CBS News reported that the FBI [Federal Bureau
of Investigation ] is investigating a suspected mole in the Department
of Defense who allegedly passed to Israel, via a pro-Israeli lobbying organization
[AIPAC], classified American intelligence about Iran. The focus of the
investigation, according to [United States] U.S. government officials,
is Larry Franklin, a veteran Defense Intelligence Agency Iran analyst now
working in the office of the Pentagon's number three civilian official,
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith." ... "The investigation
of Franklin is now shining a bright light on a shadowy struggle within
the [Republican President] Bush administration over the direction of U.S.
policy toward Iran. In particular, the FBI is looking with renewed interest
at an unauthorized back-channel between Iranian dissidents and advisers
in Feith's office, which more-senior administration officials first tried
in vain to shut down and then later attempted to cover up." ... "Franklin,
along with another colleague from Feith's office, a polyglot Middle East
expert named Harold Rhode, were the two officials involved in the back-channel,
which involved on-going meetings and contacts with Iranian arms dealer
Manucher Ghorbanifar and other Iranian exiles, dissidents and government
officials. Ghorbanifar is a storied figure who played a key role in embroiling
the Reagan administration in the Iran-Contra affair. The meetings were
both a conduit for intelligence about Iran and Iraq and part of a bitter
administration power-struggle pitting officials at [the Department of Defense]
DoD who have been pushing for a hard-line policy of "regime change" in
Iran, against other officials at the State Department and the CIA [Central
Intelligence Agency] who have been counseling a more cautious approach."
... "Reports of two of these meetings first surfaced a year ago in Newsday,
and have since been the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence. Whether or how the meetings are connected
to the alleged espionage remains unknown. But the FBI is now closely scrutinizing
them." ... "While the FBI is looking at the meetings as part of its criminal
investigation, to congressional investigators the Ghorbanifar back-channel
typifies the out-of-control bureaucratic turf wars which have characterized
and often hobbled Bush administration policy-making. And an investigation
by The Washington Monthly -- including a rare interview with Ghorbanifar
-- adds weight to those concerns. The meetings turn out to have been far
more extensive and much less under White House control than originally
reported. One of the meetings, which Pentagon officials have long characterized
as merely a "chance encounter" seems in fact to have been planned long
in advance by Rhode and Ghorbanifar. Another has never been reported in
the American press. The administration's reluctance to disclose these details
seems clear: the DoD-Ghorbanifar meetings suggest the possibility that
a rogue faction at the Pentagon was trying to work outside normal US foreign
policy channels to advance a "regime change" agenda not approved by the
president's foreign policy principals or even the president himself." ...
"The Italian Job" ... "The first meeting occurred in Rome [Italy's
capital] in December, 2001. It included Franklin, Rhode, and another American,
the neoconservative writer and operative Michael Ledeen, who organized
the meeting. (According to UPI, Ledeen was then working for Feith as a
consultant.) Also in attendance was Ghorbanifar and a number of other Iranians.
One of the Iranians, according to two sources familiar with the meeting,
was a former senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who claimed
to have information about dissident ranks within the Iranian security services.
The
Washington Monthly has also learned from U.S. government sources that
Nicolo Pollari, the head of Italy's military intelligence agency, SISMI,
attended the meetings, as did the Italian Minister of Defense Antonio Martino,
who is well-known in neoconservative circles in Washington." ... "Alarm
bells about the December 2001 meeting began going off in U.S. government
channels only days after it occurred." ... "Since the late 1980s Ghorbanifar
has been the subject of two CIA "burn notices." The Agency believes Ghorbanifar
is a serial "fabricator" and forbids its officers from having anything
to do with him." -By Joshua
Micah Marshall, Laura Rozen,
and Paul Glastris with contributions by Claudio Lavanga
-WashingtonMonthly.com
-
- 
- "Najaf
battle a crucial test for Allawi: Clashes between
US troops and Sadr militiamen escalated Thursday, as the US surrounded
Najaf for possible siege." ... "The final stages for an assault on Moqtada
al-Sadr's militia in the holy city of Najaf are now in place." ... "For
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, this is a crucial test of the strength
of his government, barely a month and a half old, and a first chance to
extend government authority over a key part of Iraq, most of which remains
under the control of armed militias and insurgents." -By
Scott Baldauf with contributions by James Brandon
-CSMonitor
- 
- "US
increases pressure on Sudan." ... "The US secretary
of state, Colin Powell, today said he expected the UN security council
to threaten sanctions against Sudan over the humanitarian crisis in Dafur."
... "More than one million refugees there face the threat of famine, disease
and attacks by pro-government militia." ... "A draft resolution, circulated
by the US yesterday, called on Khartoum to prosecute the leaders of the
predominantly Arab Janjaweed militia, and advocated an immediate embargo
on weapons to the region." ... "The refugees, mainly from Darfur's black
African tribes, have fled their homes after being attacked by the Janjaweed.
They now live in tent cities, where overcrowding a shortage of rations
are leading to deaths from hunger and disease."
-Guardian.co.uk
-
- "U.S.
[Proposes UN] Gives Sudan 30 Days to Arrest, Prosecute Militia (Update2)."
... "The U.S. proposed giving Sudan's government 30 days to arrest and
prosecute leaders of the Janjaweed militia that has attacked people in
Darfur or face the threat of United Nations sanctions." ... "The demand
for action and threat of sanctions are included in a draft resolution given
today to UN Security Council members. The text, a revision of a measure
first distributed last month, also imposes an arms embargo on the Janjaweed
designed to prevent its resupply by Sudan's government."-By
Bill Varner ed. by Paul Tighe -Bloomberg
- "Who
Are the Janjaweed? A guide to the Sudanese militiamen."
[MSN explainer] ... "The word [Janjaweed], an Arabic colloquialism, means
"a man with a gun on a horse." Janjaweed militiamen are primarily members
of nomadic "Arab" tribes who've long been at odds with Darfur's settled
"African" farmers, who are darker-skinned. (The labels Arab and African
are rather misleading, given the complexity of the region's ethnic history.
For simplicity's sake, Explainer will stick with these inelegant terms.)
Until last year, the conflicts were mostly over Darfur's scarce water and
land resources—desertification has been a serious problem, so grazing areas
and wells are at a premium. In fact, the term "Janjaweed" has for years
been synonymous with bandit, as these horse- or camel-borne fighters were
known to swoop in on non-Arab farms to steal cattle." ... "Both victims
and international observers allege that the Janjaweed are no longer the
scrappy militias of yore, but rather well-equipped fighting forces that
enjoy the overt assistance of the Sudanese government." -By
Brendan I. Koerner -Slate.com
via MSN
-
- 
- 
- 
- "War
Costs Exceed Budget, Watchdog Panel Says." ... "Military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are running $12.3 billion over budget
this year, and Pentagon officials are trying to make up for the shortfall
by transferring money from other accounts and delaying refurbishment of
worn-out equipment in Iraq, the General Accountability Office said Wednesday."
... "The office, a nonpartisan Congressional agency, estimated that the
Army was running about $9.4 billion short of what had been budgeted. By
putting off other kinds of spending until next year, the military is likely
to run up higher costs in future, said the agency, which was formerly the
General Accounting Office." -By Edmund L. Andrews
-NYTimes
-
-
- "Short-Changed
Soldiers: Report: U.S. Army Reservists Encounter
Pay Problems." ... "An overwhelming number of U.S. Army reservists are
having problems getting paid, and many are paid late." ... "A report issued
today by the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress,
discovered major problems with the way the Army compensates its reservists."
... "Such problems are causing a considerable hardship for Melinda Delain,
a single mother who had just purchased a new home when her reserve unit
was deployed to Afghanistan." ... "Like everyone else in her medical unit,
she did not receive her full paycheck for three months." ... "In its report,
GAO investigators found that 95 percent of Army reservists had pay problems."
(1, 2)
-ABCNEWS.com
- 
- 
- "Haiti
receives $1-billion in pledges: Aid promised as [Canadian]
troops prepare to pull out." ... "But the fledgling peacekeeping force
in Haiti is woefully short of soldiers, with only 2,200 on the ground,
compared with the 8,000 the UN says are necessary. And nearly one-quarter
of that force, the 520-strong Canadian contingent, will start packing to
go home this week." ... "The departure of the Canadians will leave about
1,700 UN peacekeepers to cope with Haiti's sporadic violence and widespread
crime. Contingents from other countries have been slow to arrive -- for
instance, of an expected 200 Argentine soldiers who are supposed to take
over in Gonaïves next week, only a small advance party has reached
Haiti." -By Paul Koring -TheGlobeAndMail.com
- "Rights
Group Says Sudan's Government Aided Militias." ...
"Human Rights Watch, the New York-based advocacy group, on Monday published
excerpts of documents that it says implicate the Sudanese government in
recruiting, equipping and guaranteeing impunity for the Arab militias accused
of killing tens of thousands of Africans and driving more than 1 million
from their homes in the Darfur region of Sudan." ... "The rights organization
said the confidential government documents called on local Sudanese officials
in February and March to recruit fighters for the militia known as the
Janjaweed, to give them "provisions and ammunition," and to tolerate "minor"
abuses of civilians." -By Colum Lynch-WashingtonPost
- "Bodies
lined up in the desert of Darfur: Witness to ethnic
cleansing." ... "I saw numbing evidence of the ethnic cleansing campaign
pursued by the government of Sudan in this Muslim region, which is populated
by Arabs and non-Arabs. In response to a rebellion begun by primarily non-Arab
groups in early 2003, the regime armed the Janjaweed militia, giving them
impunity to attack. Burned villages confirmed harrowing stories we had
heard from Darfurians who were lucky enough to make it to refugee camps
in Chad." ... "In village after village that I visited, the painstakingly
accumulated wealth of the non-Arab population - their livestock, their
homes, their grainstocks - had been abruptly destroyed. About 1.5 million
people have been left homeless, and as many as 300,000 may be dead by year's
end." ... "It is time to move directly against regime officials who are
responsible for the killing. Accountability for crimes against humanity
is imperative, as is the deployment of sufficient force to ensure disarmament
and arrangements to deliver emergency aid." -By John
Prendergast -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prisons
- Classified
- Military
- Intelligence
- US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Noteworthy
- "Implausible
Denial II." ... "On Saturday, May 15--twenty-four
hours after The Nation published "Implausible
Denial"--The New Yorker posted on its website Seymour Hersh's latest
Abu Ghraib-related investigative report. Its central revelation: The interrogations
at [Iraq prison] Abu Ghraib were part of a highly classified Special Access
Program (SAP) code-named Copper Green, authorized by [Republican President
Bush's] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and ultimately overseen by Under
Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone. Originally a joint
[Central Intelligence Agency] CIA-Pentagon program in Afghanistan that
utilized highly trained Special Operations personnel, Copper Green eventually
expanded to Iraq, Hersh reports, where Cambone decided it would begin using
non-Special Operations personnel--including military intelligence officers
and other military personnel--to begin questioning prisoners whose status
was outside the program's original brief. The CIA objected and withdrew
from the program, while Cambone apparently tasked [Major General] Maj.
Gen. Geoffrey Miller, former Guantánamo Bay interrogations chief,
with "Gitmo-izing" Iraq's prison system." ... "What may be more surprising
than the revelations in Hersh's piece is the fact that leads to the Abu
Ghraib skullduggery were hidden in plain sight--and that the Pentagon press
corps all but ignored them. Though Cambone has been an exceptionally sub
rosa figure in his position as DoD's intelligence chief, on November 21,
2003, he sat down for a rare on-record meeting over breakfast with the
Defense Writers Group. Again in contrast to his May 11 comments, in which
he cast himself as a benign bureaucrat largely out of the loop, his November
comments offer a glimpse into the mechanics of how Cambone's office was
assertively taking the lead in coordinating intelligence operations in
Iraq." ... "Noting first that his office has "one group of people over
to do an assessment" and that another was getting ready to go, Cambone
said that "the requirement for an increased level of intelligence support
became increasingly evident as we went through a period between early July/late
August.... In that late August time frame, a delegation went over there
from the Department and included people from the CIA to look at how we
were structured, whether we had proper arrangement at the division level,
whether that information, as it was being compiled at the divisional level,
was being moved from that level up to the CJTF-7 [Combined Joint Task Force-7]
level in an expeditious manner."" ... "Cambone further stated that the
group "came back with a list of somewhere close to eighty or ninety recommendations,"
and went on to describe a rapid infusion of personnel and technology for
intelligence-related endeavors. He also noted that the Director of Central
Intelligence, George Tenet, had "made a number of adjustments in his complement
of people in Iraq" as part of a "concerted effort to lash up much more
tightly the work that is done in the context of the CIA activities with
those being done by the Department to ensure there is [a] cross-flow of
information and cooperation."" ... "Cambone's remarks at the breakfast
also bring into potentially clearer focus the role in Abu Ghraib of [Lieutenant
General] Lieut. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin, his deputy for intelligence
and warfighting support. "It is an office," Cambone says of Boykin's shop,
"that is designed to assure the types of capabilities we have just been
talking about here, whether it is people, or it is resources, or it is
material, or it is information, is moved forward to the people who need
it at various levels of command and operation in order for them to execute
their mission."" -By Jason
West -TheNation.com
US
- Afghanistan
- Military
- 
Terrorism
- Prisoner
- War
Crimes Act - Human
Rights - Death
Penalty - Politics
- "Memos
Reveal War Crimes Warnings: Could Bush administration
officials be prosecuted for 'war crimes' as a result of new measures used
in the war on terror? The White House's top lawyer thought so." ... "The
White House's top lawyer warned more than two years ago that U.S. officials
could be prosecuted for "war crimes" as a result of new and unorthodox
measures used by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism, according
to an internal White House memo and interviews with participants in the
debate over the issue." ... "The concern about possible future prosecution
for war crimes-and that it might even apply to Bush adminstration
officials themselves- is contained in a crucial portion of an internal
January
25, 2002, memo by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales
obtained by NEWSWEEK. It urges President George Bush declare the
war in Afghanistan, including the detention of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters,
exempt from the provisions of the Geneva Convention." ... "In the memo,
the White House lawyer focused on a little known 1996 law passed by Congress,
known as the War Crimes Act, that banned any Americans from committing
war crimes-defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions.
Noting that the law applies to "U.S. officials" and that punishments
for violators "include the death penalty," Gonzales told Bush that
"it was difficult to predict with confidence" how Justice Department prosecutors
might apply the law in the future. This was especially the case given that
some of the language in the Geneva Conventions-such as that outlawing "outrages
upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment" of prisoners-was "undefined.""
... "One key advantage of declaring that Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters
did not have Geneva Convention protections is that it "substantially reduces
the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act,"
Gonzales wrote." -By Michael Isikoff
-MSNBC/Newsweek
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prison
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Human
Rights - 
Law
- Politics
- US
- 
Syria
- Iraq
- "Knowledge
of Abusive Tactics May Go Higher." ... "Army intelligence
officers suspected that a Syrian and admitted jihadist who was detained
at [Iraq's] Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad [Iraq's capital] knew about
the illegal flow of money, arms and foreign fighters into Iraq. But he
was smug, the officers said, and refused to talk. So last November, they
devised a special plan for his interrogation, going beyond what Army rules
normally allowed." ... "An Army colonel [Thomas M. Pappas] in charge of
intelligence-gathering at the prison, spelling out the plan in a classified
cable to the top [United States] U.S. military officer in Iraq, said interrogators
would use a method known as "fear up harsh," which military documents said
meant "significantly increasing the fear level in a security detainee."
The aim was to make the 31-year-old Syrian think his only hope in life
was to talk, undermining his confidence in what they termed "the Allah
factor."" ... "According to the plan, interrogators needed the assistance
of military police supervising his detention at the prison, who ordinarily
play no role in interrogations under Army regulations. First, the interrogators
were to throw chairs and tables in the man's presence at the prison and
"invade his personal space."" ... "Then the police were to put a hood on
his head and take him to an isolated cell through a gantlet of barking
guard dogs; there, the police were to strip-search him and interrupt his
sleep for three days with interrogations, barking and loud music, according
to Army documents. The plan was sent to [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez." ... "Congressional testimony by Defense Department and Army officials
over the past two weeks has highlighted the fact that the abuses in Iraq
-- which mostly occurred in the last quarter of 2003 -- came at a time
of heightened pressures in Washington for more robust intelligence-gathering,
because of proliferating attacks on U.S. forces and the dwindling intelligence
on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction." ... "Although
no direct links have been found between the documented abuses and orders
from Washington, Pentagon officials who spoke on the condition that they
not be named say that the hunt for data on these two topics was coordinated
during this period by Defense Undersecretary Stephen A. Cambone, the top
U.S. military intelligence official and long one of the closest aides to
[Republican President Bush's] Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld."
... ""We've got no proof that a person in authority told them to do this
activity," [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, the Army's deputy
chief of staff, said on May 11." ... "But three directives in particular
have already begun to attract congressional scrutiny: The first is a classified
report by Army [Major General] Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller on [September]
Sept. 9, 2003, demanding that the military police at Abu Ghraib be dedicated
and trained to set "the conditions for the successful interrogation and
exploitation of internees/detainees." The report, which Cambone has testified
was presented to his deputy William Boykin, contained five recommendations
spelling out how this was to occur and reported it had already begun."
... "The second is an [October] Oct. 12 classified memo signed by Sanchez
that demanded a "harmonization" of military policing and intelligence work
at Abu Ghraib for the purpose of ensuring "consistency with the interrogation
policies . . . and maximiz[ing] the efficiency of the interrogation.""
... "The memo, obtained by The Washington Post, also states "it is imperative
that interrogators be provided reasonable latitude to vary their approach,"
depending on a detainee's background, strengths, resistance and other factors.
It also explicitly demands humane treatment and requires that any dogs
present during the interrogations be muzzled." ... "The third is a [November]
Nov. 19 memo from Sanchez's office that formally placed the two key Abu
Ghraib cellblocks where the abuses occurred under the control of Pappas
and his 205th Military Intelligence Brigade. It was 11 days later, after
this memo placed the military police responsible for "security of detainees
and base protection" in Pappas's hands, that he sought, in his memo to
Sanchez, to draw military police explicitly into applying pressure on the
Syrian." ... "The fact that prison interrogations were so directly controlled
by these military directives, as well as the apparent cultural sophistication
of some of the abuses, has already led some lawmakers to conclude that
much more experienced and senior officers were involved than the seven
military police now charged by the Army with wrongdoing. " (1, 2,
3)
-By R. Jeffrey Smith with contributions by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
and Sewell Chan -WashingtonPost
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prisons
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Human
Rights - Law
- Politics
- Feith
- 
Rhode
Island - 
Virginia
- US
- Iraq
- Guantánamo
Bay - 
Cuba
- Noteworthy
- "Implausible
Denial." ... "Writing in the December 16, 2002, edition
of The Nation, I broke the news--and explored the concerns many
in the [United States] US intelligence community had--about [Republican
President Bush's] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's quiet success in
prevailing upon Congress to authorize the creation of a new senior position
at the Pentagon,the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. Several
months later, in the pages of the Columbia Journalism Review, I
followed up with a piece devoted to the media's utter lack of interest--perhaps
best demonstrated by the absence of any reporter from a farcical confirmation
hearing--in the new Under Secretary himself, Stephen Cambone." ... "Despite
his status as the Pentagon's über-intelligence authority, in the initial
days of the breaking [Iraq prison] Abu Ghraib scandal Cambone was virtually
invisible. When Rumsfeld was called to the Hill to testify before the Armed
Services Committee on May 7, however, Cambone was unexpectedly summoned
to the witness table from his chair behind Rumsfeld. That cameo appearance
resulted in a more expansive return appearance on May 11, in which Cambone
less than deftly tried to undermine Abu Ghraib investigator [Major General]
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. (Cambone disputed the general's conclusion that
military intelligence units effectively controlled the prison's military
police detachment.) Cambone also reacted adversely to [Rhode Island Democratic]
Senator Jack Reed's assertion (confirmed by Taguba) that recommendations
made in a report on improving intelligence collection at Abu Ghraib by
then-chief Guantánamo Bay [Cuba] interrogator [Major General] Maj.
Gen. Geoffrey Miller clearly called for the use of [Military Police] MPs
in interrogations, which helped create an environment that begot the subsequent
abuse and torture in the tiers. As a May 12 Washington Post editorial
points out, Cambone's office approved interrogation practices that are
in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions." ... "At the May 11 hearings,
Cambone and another senior Defense Department official, Army intelligence
chief [Lieutenant General] Lieut. Gen Keith Alexander, essentially cast
themselves as mere Pentagon representatives fielding questions about Abu
Ghraib--and not as men who might bear any responsibility for what they
desperately tried to cast as an aberrant and isolated incident. Yet many
of their assertions on May 11 are in fact contradicted by statements they
made before the same committee a month before, as well as a year-old memo
outlining the responsibilities of Cambone's office." ... "The Under Secretary
of Defense for Intelligence, or OUSD(I) in Pentagonese, was originally
conceived by Rumsfeld as a centralizing measure, a way to give him "one
dog to kick" rather than a "whole kennel" of individual civilian and uniformed
defense intelligence agencies. In choosing the person responsible for ostensibly
bringing unprecedented order and control to the Pentagon's spy shops, the
Secretary chose Cambone, a man with no intelligence experience but a favored
protégé and loyal partisan who had served on Rumsfeld's ballistic
missile threat commission and worked with the neoconservative Project for
the New American Century. Previously principal deputy to Under Secretary
for Policy Doug Feith (and, in that capacity, liaison between Feith and
the ideological intelligence analysis unit that would later morph into
the notorious Office of Special Plans), Cambone went out of his way in
his confirmation hearings to say that he would closely "consult and coordinate"
with Feith to "insure [that Department of Defense] DoD-related intelligence
activity supports the goals" of the Pentagon's policy shop." ... "Two months
after Cambone's confirmation, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz described
his new portfolio in a detailed internal Pentagon memo. Reflecting the
seriousness and specificity of Cambone's mission, an organizational chart
appended to the memo shows a generic under secretary with six deputies,
including one for warfighting and operations, whose duties include specific
liaison with the intelligence elements of each of the armed services, each
individual combatant command, and the under secretary for policy. The document
itself explicitly states that Cambone's office will, among other things:"
... "provide oversight and policy guidance for all DoD intelligence activities;
provide policy oversight of all the intelligence organizations within the
DoD, to include ensuring these organizations are manned, trained, equipped
and structured to support the missions of the Department; provide
assessments of and advice [to] the Secretary and CJCS [Chairman, Joint
Chiefs of Staff] on the adequacy of military intelligence performance;
exercise management and oversight of all DoD counterintelligence and security
activities; coordinate DoD intelligence and intelligence-related policy,
plans, programs, requirements and resource allocations; oversee provision
of intelligence support and involvement in information operations, focused
on assessments in support of operations." ... "None of this should leave
much to the imagination, especially when it comes to policies and practices
pertaining to the dimensions of human intelligence collection that involve
interrogations conducted by military intelligence. Yet when asked by [Virginia
Republican] Senator John Warner if his office has "overall responsibility
for policy concerning the handling of detainees," Cambone dodged with a
"not precisely, sir," effectively denying any responsibility as set forth
in his charge by Wolfowitz. Rather, Cambone said, he only reactively "became
involved in this issue from the perspective of assuring there was a flow
of intelligence back to the commands and done in an efficient and effective
way."" -By Jason
West -TheNation.com
James
Inhofe - Torture
- Politician
- US
- Military
- Prisoners
- Photographs
- Iraqi
- Human
Rights - Lawmakers
- 
Oklahoma
- "GOP
[Republican] senator labels abused prisoners 'terrorists':
Other lawmakers disavow comment." ... "A Republican member of the Senate
Armed Services Committee dismissed Tuesday the outrage over the abuse of
Iraqi prisoners by [United States] U.S. troops, saying Iraqis depicted
in widely broadcast photographs probably had "blood on their hands."" ...
""I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged
by the outrage than we are by the treatment," [Oklahoma Republican Senator]
Sen. James Inhofe said during a hearing on the [Iraqi] Abu Ghraib prison
scandal. (Full
story)" ... "[Republican] President Bush and other top U.S. officials
and leading Republicans have condemned the abuse of Iraqis held at the
Baghdad[Iraq's capital]-area prison, once a notorious torture chamber under
ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein." ... "Though he [Inhofe] called the
soldiers charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners "seven bad people," he added,
"I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right
now crawling all over these prisons looking for human rights violations
while our troops, our heroes, are fighting and dying."" -With
contributions by Ed Henry -CNN
-
- "US
forces kill 64 in fighting near Iraqi holy city of Najaf."
... "US forces have killed 64 rebel militiamen in clashes near Shia Islam's
holiest city, Najaf, a US military spokesman in Baghdad said yesterday."
... "At least 115 US troops have been killed in fighting this month - as
many as died in combat during the two-month invasion of Iraq." -By
Nicolas Pelham -FT.com
-
- "U.S.
gunships topple tower of mosque." ... "A protracted
firefight between Marines and insurgents in a Fallujah suburb on Monday
culminated with U.S. helicopter gunships and tanks firing at a mosque and
toppling its minaret, further dimming hopes for a peaceful end to the three-week
siege." ... "The U.S. command said that the battle erupted when insurgents,
breaching a shaky cease-fire in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, used
the mosque to launch rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire at Marine
positions. After two hours, pinned down by fire, the Marines called in
helicopters and tanks, which directed "suppressing fire" at the mosque,
the command said." ... "One U.S. Marine was killed and eight others wounded
in the battle, which also killed eight insurgents, a U.S. spokesman said."
-By John Burns -NYTimes
via -RegisterGuard
-
-
- "Shi'ite
cleric threatens suicide attacks." ... "Militant
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ratcheted up his anti-American rhetoric
yesterday, threatening to launch suicide attacks if US forces enter Iraq's
holy cities to capture or kill him." ... "Sadr's remarks, made during Friday
prayers at the Kufa mosque, marked an ominous escalation in the standoff
between the cleric, whose militia has seized control of mosques and other
key sites in Najaf and Kufa, and US officials who have been threatening
to retake the southern cities by force." -By Edmund
Sanders-LAtimes
via -Boston/Globe
- 
-
- "Bush
eases years-long economic sanctions against Libya."
... "President Bush on Friday eased economic sanctions against Libya, ending
its status as a pariah nation and clearing the way for the return of American
oil companies." ... "Bush's order ending Libya's economic isolation gave
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi the reward that he wanted for agreeing in
December to abandon his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction." -By
Ron Hutcheson -Knight Ridder via
-SLTrib.com
-
- 
- "NFL,
Arizona Football Fans Mourn Death of Pat Tillman, Who Gave Up Career to
Fight for Country." ... "Pat Tillman overachieved
in football, and just about everything else. He worked his way from seventh-round
draft pick to starting safety for the Arizona Cardinals, then walked away
from millions of dollars to join the Army Rangers and serve his country.
This week, he paid with his life. Tillman was killed in an ambush Thursday
night in Afghanistan. He was 27." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "U.S.
Soldiers Re-Enlist in Strong Numbers: Despite Violence
in Iraq, U.S. Soldiers Are Re-Enlisting at Rates Higher Than Pentagon Expected."
... "Despite the shrapnel wounds Staff Sgt. William Pinkley suffered during
his tour in Iraq, the 26-year-old is joining other soldiers who are re-enlisting
at rates that exceed the retention goals set by the Pentagon." ... "As
of March 31 halfway through the Army's fiscal year 28,406 soldiers had
signed on for another tour of duty, topping the six-month goal of 28,377.
The Army's goal is to re-enlist 56,100 soldiers by the end of September."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Marines
Warn Insurgents in Fallujah to Hand Over Heavy Weapons or Face Possible
U.S. Attack." ... "The stark warning came two days
after city leaders called on insurgents to hand over their heavy weapons
in return for a U.S. pledge to hold back on plans to storm Fallujah and
allow the return of families that fled the city." ... "Now Marines have
halted the return of families because of the failure to disarm and the
desire to have fewer civilians in the city if fighting resumes. More than
a third of Fallujah's 200,000 people fled to Baghdad and elsewhere during
the fighting that began April 5." ... "Early Thursday, Marines launched
a major assault on the village of Karma, 10 miles northeast of Fallujah,
in a second attempt to put down guerrillas there."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- 
- Photo
- "Woman
fired by military contractor for published photograph of flag-draped U.S.
coffins." ... "A military contractor fired two cargo
workers responsible for a photograph of flag-draped coffins of U.S. soldiers
that appeared on a newspaper's front page." ... "Maytag Aircraft Corp.
fired Tami Silicio, 50, and her husband, David Landry, because they "violated
Department of Defense and company policies by working together" to take
and publish the photograph, company president William Silva said in a news
release Thursday." ... "The firing was first reported Thursday in The Seattle
Times, which published the April 7 photo on Sunday." -By
Gene Johnson -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Woman
fired by military contractor for published photograph of flag-draped U.S.
coffins." ... "A military contractor fired two cargo
workers responsible for a photograph of flag-draped coffins of U.S. soldiers
that appeared on a newspaper's front page." ... "Maytag Aircraft Corp.
fired Tami Silicio, 50, and her husband, David Landry, because they "violated
Department of Defense and company policies by working together" to take
and publish the photograph, company president William Silva said in a news
release Thursday." ... "The firing was first reported Thursday in The Seattle
Times, which published the April 7 photo on Sunday." -By
Gene Johnson -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
- 
- "Death
toll near 500 in Fallujah, Baghdad." ... "In the
first detailed accounting of Iraqi casualties in the fighting that erupted
across the country this month, officials at the Iraqi Ministry of Health
said yesterday that 264 have been killed and 791 wounded in the Fallujah
area since April 5, while in Baghdad another 235 have been killed and 832
wounded." ... "The health ministry's nationwide data also show that 12
percent of the Iraqis killed were women or children 15 years old or younger."
... "The health ministry's casualty toll for Fallujah was substantially
lower than the death counts reported since fighting broke out there at
the start of April. The data also show a nationwide death toll for April's
fighting that is much lower than the figures widely reported in the media,
some of them exceeding 1,100." -By Anne Barnard
-Boston/Globe
-
-
-
- "High
Court Hears Detention Cases: Policy on Terror Suspects
Challenged." ... "Facing the court in oral arguments over the detention
of al Qaeda and Taliban suspects held at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba, Solicitor
General Theodore B. Olson dramatically reminded the court that "the United
States is at war," that more than 10,000 troops are in Afghanistan, and
that the country faces an "extraordinary threat."" ... "But several justices
asked questions that implied they doubted Olson's assertion that Bush,
as commander in chief, may hold the suspects for interrogation at the base
in Cuba as long as he deems necessary, without judicial oversight." ...
""It seems rather contrary to an idea of a Constitution with three branches
that the executive would be free to do whatever they want -- whatever they
want without a check," Justice Stephen G. Breyer said." ... "The question
is whether the Guantanamo detainees have a right to ask a federal court
to order the president to give them a hearing --not whether the courts
must do so." (1, 2)
-By Charles Lane-WashingtonPost
-
- 
- 
- 
- 
- "Powell
urges coalition leaders to keep troops in Iraq."
... "Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday the U.S.-led coalition
in Iraq remains strong despite decisions by Spain and Honduras to pull
out their troops. Later, the Dominican Republic announced that it also
would withdraw its troops." ... "Powell told reporters that leaders of
13 coalition countries with whom he spoke by telephone Monday and Tuesday
"all expressed steadfast support" for their respective troop commitments."
... "Among the leaders Powell spoke with was Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai." ... "In addition to Surakiart, Powell spoke with leaders
of El Salvador, Dominica, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, Portugal, Poland, Bulgaria,
Holland, Romania, the Philippines and Ukraine." -By
George Gedda -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Iraq
jail attack kills 22 inmates: A mortar attack on
an Iraqi detention centre near Baghdad has left 22 inmates dead, the US
military says." ... "All the casualties in the attack on the Baghdad Confinement
Facility in Abu Ghraib were prisoners of the US-led coalition, officials
said." ... "The sprawling prison complex of Abu Ghraib, which covers more
than one square kilometre, was one of Iraq's biggest prisons under Saddam
Hussein's regime and had a fearsome reputation."
-BBC/News
-
- "Profile:
John Negroponte: John Negroponte was the man who
spearheaded the US diplomatic effort in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion
of Iraq." ... "The soft-spoken diplomat will head the largest US embassy
in the world, in charge of 3,000 staff." ... ""He'll hold the title of
ambassador but he's really being appointed de facto governor-general of
Iraq because the US is going to retain a lot of authority,'' Ted Galen
Carpenter of the Washington-based Cato Institute think-tank told Bloomberg
news service." -BBC/News
-
-
-
- "Spain
recalls its troops from Iraq: New prime minister
fulfills campaign vow." ... "Spain's prime minister yesterday ordered Spanish
troops pulled out of Iraq as soon as possible, fulfilling a campaign pledge
to a nation recovering from terrorist bombings that Al Qaeda militants
said were reprisal for Spain's support of the war." ... "Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero issued the abrupt recall just hours after his government was sworn
in, saying there was no sign the United States would meet his demand for
United Nations control of the postwar occupation -- his ultimatum for keeping
troops there." ... "Zapatero's Socialist Party won the March 14 general
election amid allegations that outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar,
by backing the war in Iraq, had provoked commuter-train terrorist bombings
that killed 191 people three days before the vote." (1, 2)
-By Daniel Woolls -AP
via -Boston/Globe
- Osama
bin Laden -
"C.I.A.
Says Voice on Tape Likely bin Laden." ... "The CIA
said Thursday that a tape of a man identifying himself as Osama bin Laden
probably is an authentic recording of the al-Qaida leader." ... "The official,
speaking on condition of anonymity, said the tape was probably recorded
in the past several weeks because of its reference to Israel's killing
last month of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. In the tape, the speaker
vows revenge against the United States for the killing."
-AP via -NYTimes
via -AltaVista-News
-
- "Iraq
death toll reaches new high." ... "The last two weeks
have been the bloodiest yet for US soldiers in Iraq since the fall of Saddam
Hussein. Iraqi deaths are much harder to track, but an Associated Press
estimate puts the total since 1 April at 880." ... "April's casualty count
for US soldiers has spiralled to 87, the highest for any month since the
war began." ... "Nearly all the deaths have been in hostile incidents in
two weeks which have seen major battles with both Sunni and Shia insurgents."
... "Most of the US soldiers have been killed in attacks on road convoys,
firefights in the Sunni-dominated towns of Falluja and Ramadi and battles
in and around Baghdad." ... "The total of American soldiers killed in Iraq
is now 686. More than three-quarters of these have died since major hostilities
ceased." ... "Just over a quarter of the casualties have died in "non-hostile"
events such as accidents involving vehicles or munitions."
-BBC/News
-
- "US
troops to stay longer in Iraq: Some 20,000 US troops
now serving in Iraq will have their tour of duty extended, Defence Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld has announced." ... "Mr Rumsfeld said they would spend
another 90 days in Iraq beyond their original one-year deployment." ...
""The country is at war and we need to do what is necessary to succeed,"
he told a news conference." ... "Mr Rumsfeld said the extension came in
response to a request by the commander of US forces in Iraq, Gen John Abizaid."
-BBC/News
-
- "Insurgents
Display New Sophistication: Campaign Leaves Bridges
Heavily Damaged, Hampering Military's Push South." ... "Insurgents fighting
the U.S.-led occupation force have sharply increased the sophistication,
coordination and aggressiveness of their tactics over the past week, Army
officers and soldiers involved in combat here said." ... "With occupation
forces battling Sadr's Shiite militiamen south and east of Baghdad and
Sunni Muslim insurgents to the north and west, the timing of the Iraqis'
tactical development is nearly as troubling for U.S. forces as its effect.
But the explanation for the change is not yet clear, military commanders
said." ... "Here in southern Iraq, which is overwhelmingly Shiite, U.S.
officers say the best guess is that former soldiers who served under President
Saddam Hussein have decided to lend their expertise and coordinating abilities
to the untrained Shiite militiamen." (1, 2)
-By Thomas E. Ricks-WashingtonPost
-
- 
- "Dead
soldier's sisters excused duty in war zone." ...
"Michelle Witmer, 20, died last Friday in an ambush of her Humvee, and
her father's plea to the Pentagon to spare his two other daughters, who
were also serving in Wisconsin national guard units in Iraq, received attention
throughout the US." -By Suzanne Goldenberg
-Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Cleric,
Surrounded by U.S., Hints at Easing His Resistance."
... "A 2,500-member American force backed by tanks and artillery took up
positions outside Najaf on Tuesday when a rebel Shiite cleric, Moktada
al-Sadr, resisted demands from the American authorities and other clerics
that he disband a militia that has challenged American authority across
wide areas of southern Iraq." ... "From his Najaf headquarters, Mr. Sadr
shrugged off American threats to capture or kill him, saying he was "ready
to sacrifice my blood" to end the American occupation." ... "But the day
after a delegation sent by some of the most powerful Shiite clerics appealed
to him to avoid a showdown, he also hinted at a face-saving compromise,
saying he was ready to "implement any order" issued by the religious establishment."
(1, 2)
-By John F. Burns with contributions from Warren Hoge
-NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
-
- "Iran
distances itself from Sadr." ... "Iran is dismissing
attempts by Washington to link it to Moqtada al-Sadr, the young radical
cleric whose militia has battled US forces in neighbouring Iraq." ... "US
officials and administration ad visers have long alleged that Iran has
secretly funded Mr Sadr's militia. On Monday, General John Abizaid, commander
of US Central Command, told a press briefing "there are indications from
intelligence folks that there are some Iranian activities going on that
are unhelpful". Last week, Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of defence, accused
Iran of "meddling" in Iraq." -By Gareth Smyth
-FT.com
-
- "14
Soldiers Killed in Iraq Since Friday: Uneasy Ceasefire
in Fallujah." ... "Meanwhile, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq,
Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, defended the current level of 129,000 U.S.
troops in Iraq as adequate. "We clearly showed some weaknesses here in
the last couple of weeks, and we are retackling the problem with greater
intensity," he said on NBC's "Meet The Press."" ... "Sanchez also said
that the refusal of a new Iraqi army battalion to fight in Fallujah "did
uncover significant challenges" in the Iraqi security forces." ... ""We
knew that there were going to be some risks that we were taking by standing
up security forces quickly, and we also know that it's going to take us
a while to stand up reliable forces that can accept responsibility for
both the internal and the external security of the country," Sanchez said."
(1, 2)
-By Sewell Chan and Pamela Constable with contributions
by Thomas E. Ricks and Saad Sarhan -WashingtonPost
-
-
- "Japan
court rules against shrine visits, PM unbowed." ...
"A Japanese court ruled on Wednesday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
had violated the constitution by visiting a shrine honouring Japan's military
war dead, a landmark ruling on his annual pilgrimages that have angered
China and other Asian neighbours." ... "But Koizumi vowed to keep visiting
Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are among those honoured and
which critics at home and abroad regard as a symbol of Japan's past militarism."
-By Masayuki Kitano -Reuters
-
- "Top focus before
9/11 wasn't terrorism: Rice speech cited missile
defense." ... "On Sept. 11, 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza
Rice was scheduled to outline a Bush administration policy that would address
"the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of
yesterday" — but the focus was largely on missile defense, not terrorism
from Islamic radicals." ... "The speech provides telling insight into the
administration's thinking on the very day that the United States suffered
the most devastating attack since the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. The
address was designed to promote missile defense as the cornerstone of a
new national security strategy, and contained no mention of al Qaeda, Osama
bin Laden or Islamic extremist groups, according to former U.S. officials
who have seen the text." -By Robin Wright
-WashingtonPost via -MSNBC
-
- "Attacks
in Iraq claim lives of four contractors, five soldiers:
An anti-American mob in the Iraqi city of Fallujah ambushed a group of
contractors Wednesday, beating and dragging four bodies through the streets.
The brutal attack came on the same day a roadside bomb killed five Americans
west of Baghdad." ... "" -PBS.org
/NewsHour
-
-
- 
- 
-
-
-
- "Bush
Asks Allies for Unity on Iraq: No Nation Exempt From
Terrorism, President Says on War Anniversary." ... "President Bush yesterday
marked the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with an appeal
for international unity after a year of division by warning that there
can be "no separate peace" with the West's enemies." ... "Bush spoke to
an audience of 83 diplomats, including those from such countries as France
and Germany, which opposed the war. But his remarks seemed directed toward
such countries as Spain and Poland, allies in Iraq that are now expressing
misgivings, and, in Spain's case, rethinking their cooperation with the
United States." -By Dana Milbank -WashingtonPost
-
-
-
- "Md.
Woman Accused of Acting as Iraqi Agent." ... "Federal
agents today arrested a Maryland woman at her home on charges of acting
as an agent for the Iraqi government of former president Saddam Hussein
and plotting to aid resistance groups in Iraq after Hussein was ousted
by U.S. forces." ... "Susan Lindauer, 40, a former journalist and congressional
aide in Washington, was taken into custody by the FBI at her home in Takoma
Park after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against her and two
Iraqis, the sons of a former diplomat, who were charged with similar offenses."
-By William Branigin -WashingtonPost
-
- "War
crimes court opens in Freetown." ... "The UN-backed
war crimes court in Sierra Leone opened its new courthouse yesterday, but
was left guessing about whether its president will step down because of
alleged bias against some defendants." ... "UN and government officials
joined Geoffrey Robertson QC at the ceremony in the capital, Freetown,
but he gave no public indication about the ultimatum he has been given
to resign by tomorrow morning or stay and fight an attempt to disqualify
him." ... "Defence lawyers have demanded that he withdraw because of a
book he wrote which depicted the Revolutionary United Front, Sierra Leone's
rebel movement, as a bloodthirsty criminal enterprise which committed crimes
against humanity during a decade-long civil war." -By
Rory Carroll -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
-
- "Libya
blamed for W Africa wars: The chief prosecutor at
the UN's new court for Sierra Leone has repeated claims that the Libyan
leader is behind the past decade of war in West Africa." ... "The accusation
against Muammar Gaddafi was made by David Crane in an interview with the
BBC." -BBC/News
- 
-
-
-
-
- "Five
Guantanamo Britons Fly Home, Fate Unsure." ... "Five
British men jailed for more than two years at the U.S. Guantanamo base
in Cuba headed home Tuesday -- posing anti-terror police a dilemma over
whether to release them to their families or keep them behind bars." ...
"The five, held since late 2001 or early 2002 with more than 600 others
suspected of fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan or supporting al
Qaeda, were expected to reach the Northolt military air base near London
around 7 p.m." ... "Police will take immediate custody of them, but if
they decide there is no case against them under Britain's tough anti-terror
laws, they may be freed in days, legal sources said." (1, 2)
-By Andrew Cawthorne -Reuters
-
- "An
Interim President for Haiti Is Sworn In." ... "Interim
President Boniface Alexandre was installed in the National Palace in a
brief, awkward ceremony on Monday, as hundreds of supporters of Haiti's
exiled president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, marched through the capital,
chanting "Aristide or death!"" ... "A power struggle continued in the city's
streets and its salons with the search for a new prime minister, a day
after Aristide loyalists opened fire on anti-Aristide demonstrators near
the presidential palace. Six people were killed and about 30 wounded. United
States marines said on Monday that their return fire had killed one gunman."
(1, 2)
-By Lydia Polgreen and Tim Weiner -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- "Fears
of rising violence in capital." ... "Anger is growing
in Haiti and there are fears of more violence on the streets of the capital
Port-au-Prince today as thousands are expected to turn out for a protest
march against the toppling of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide." ... "After
a week of anarchy following Aristide's resignation and departure, armed
gangs that support the former leader have continued their shooting and
looting sprees, while the rebels who fought to depose him have been parading
around the city." ... "Now the warring factions are being quelled by the
presence of more than 2,000 international troops, mostly US marines, who
patrol the streets of the capital in armoured vehicles. But in much of
the country no one really knows who is in control." -By
Sibylla Brodzinsky -Observer.co.uk
via -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
- "Aristide
Again Says He Was Kidnapped from Haiti." ... "Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says his departure from his country was
a "kidnapping" as heavily armed "white men" surrounded the National Palace,
according to a statement released on Saturday." ... "The United States
has repeatedly dismissed Aristide's contentions that he was kidnapped when
he left Haiti on Feb. 29. The Bush administration blames the crisis in
Haiti on Aristide, who was restored to power a decade earlier by 20,000
U.S. troops after his ouster in a military coup."
-Reuters
-
-
-
- "Brazil
could lead Haiti UN peacekeeping mission." ... "French
President Jacques Chirac and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan want Brazil
to lead a U.N. peacekeeping mission due to go into Haiti in three months,
Brazil said Thursday." ... "The request came in a phone call between Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chirac and would represent a major
success for Lula's ambitions of making Brazil a leader in Latin American
affairs." -Reuters
via -Forbes
-
-
- "Government,
troops get tentative grip on Haiti." ... "The government
and foreign military forces gained a tentative grip on chaotic Haiti Thursday
as U.S. and French troops stepped up patrols and armed rebels who helped
oust the president prepared to leave the capital." ... "Banks reopened
after two weeks of gun battles, looting and barricades in the capital forced
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile. The government says a monthlong
rebel uprising cost Haiti about $300 million, roughly equivalent to its
yearly budget." -By Jim Loney and Alistair Scrutton
editing by Lori Santos -Reuters
via -Forbes
-
-
-
-
- "U.S.
may step up [Haitian]peace force to 2,000." ... "The
number of U.S. troops in Haiti could reach about 2,000, and a decision
had not been made late Monday on whether to station ships off the coast
of the troubled Caribbean nation, defense officials said." ... "U.S. Marines,
along with French and Canadian troops, continued to arrive in Haiti and
were expected to do so for several more days." ... "The U.N. Security Council
authorized the deployment of an interim multinational force hours after
Aristide's departure. According to the United Nations, a stabilization
force is expected to take over from the interim operation in three months."
-By George Edmonson contributed to by Mark Bixler
-AJC
-
-
- "U.N.
Inspectors Report Evidence That Iran Itself Made Fuel That Could Be Used
for A-Bombs." ... "Despite Iranian disavowals, International
Atomic Energy Agency experts in Iran have found evidence of indigenous
production of a concentrated fuel that, if pure enough, can be used to
make nuclear weapons. They said in an inspection report that equipment
made there showed many traces of the fuel, highly enriched uranium." ...
"Iran has consistently argued that any traces of concentrated fuel must
have come from equipment contaminated before it was imported, presumably
from Pakistan. But the report, distributed yesterday to the agency's board,
found the fuel on parts Iranians had made, and "only negligible traces"
on imported parts." (1, 2)
-By William J. Broad and David E. Sanger -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- "Scientist
Is Watched for Signs of Ebola." ... "A scientist
who works in a maximum containment laboratory at Fort Detrick has been
placed in isolation after she accidentally stuck herself with a needle
while working with mice infected with a weakened form of the Ebola virus."
... "The woman, whom officials at the Army base declined to identify, has
shown no symptoms of the deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever during eight days
of medical observation in a special isolation facility, said Army spokesman
Chuck Dasey. He said she was exposed to the Zaire strain of Ebola, the
deadliest of the three types of the virus." -By Avram
Goldstein -WashingtonPost
-
-
- "Guardsman
Charged With Trying to Spy for Al Qaeda." ... "The
Army has charged a member of the Washington State National Guard with attempting
to supply intelligence of Army organizations and weapons systems to the
Qaeda terrorist network, Army officials said on Wednesday. The intelligence
included details about military personnel, troop movement, tactics and
"vulnerabilities," the charges said." ... "Specialist Ryan G. Anderson,
26, a Muslim convert who Army officials said also went by the name Amir
Abdul Rashid, was charged on Feb. 12 at the Fort Lewis base south of here
[Seattle, Washington] with four counts of attempting to supply information
to the enemy, but the charges were not made public until Wednesday." -By
Sarah Kershaw -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- "Haitian
Premier Warns of Possible Coup: Haitian Premier Warns
of Impending Coup Amid Fears on Uprising Reaching Cap-Haitien." ... "Haiti's
premier warned of an impending coup amid fears that an uprising that has
left at least 57 people dead may have reached the country's second city,
Cap-Haitien." ... "Police and armed supporters of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide mounted barricades and patrolled the streets of Cap-Haitien on
Haiti's north coast on Tuesday." ... "[The city of] Hinche, at a strategic
crossroads in Haiti's agriculture-rich Artibonite district, was seized
Monday by some 50 rebels reportedly led by former death squad leader Louis-Jodel
Chamblain." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Head
of U.S. Central Command's convoy attacked in Iraq:
Follows 2 bombings that killed more than 100." ... "A convoy carrying Gen.
John Abizaid, the commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East, was
attacked Thursday during a visit to Iraqi defense forces in Fallujah, U.S.
officials said. No one was injured." ... "The convoy was at a compound
in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, when three rocket-propelled grenades were
fired from rooftops, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said at a news conference."
-Contributed to by Jane Arraf -CNN
- 
- 
-
- 
-
- ELECTION
2004 - "White
House releases Bush's Guard records." ... "Moving
to squelch an election year controversy, the White House yesterday made
public records showing that President Bush attended some Air National Guard
training between mid-1972 and mid-1973 and was paid for it, and said the
records refute reports that Bush did not fulfill his military obligation
during the Vietnam War." ... "But the same records also show that Bush
may not have met the minimum-service requirement expected of most Guard
members, according to National Guard officials. And after releasing the
records, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, could not explain
why, if Bush appeared for duty on the days listed in the documents, Bush's
superiors wrote on May 2, 1973, that he had not been seen at his Houston
air base for the previous 12 months." -By Walter V.
Robinson and Michael Rezendes -Boston/Globe
-
- "At
Least 36 Iraqis Killed in Car Bombing Outside Army Recruiting Center, Day
After Similar Attack." ... "A suicide driver blew
up his explosive-rigged car Wednesday outside an army recruiting center
in central Baghdad where hundreds of Iraqis were lined up to volunteer
for the military, killing at least 36 people, U.S. officials and Iraqi
witnesses said." ... "Iraq's deputy interior minister, Ahmed Ibrahim, said
47 people were killed and 50 injured. He told reporters "this crime" will
"not deter the people's march toward freedom.""
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
- -
-
- "Service
Chiefs Challenge White House on the Budget." ...
"In an unusual public display of differences with the White House, the
top officers of the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force all raised questions
on Tuesday about how the Bush administration plans to pay for operations
in Iraq and Afghanistan after the current financing runs out at the end
of September." ... "Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee,
three of the four chiefs of the armed services expressed concerns about
a financing gap, perhaps of four months, for the two missions, whose combined
cost is about $5 billion a month." -By Eric Schmitt
-NYTimes
-
- "Americans
warned against travel to Haiti." ... "With Haiti
wracked by civil unrest, the United States urged Americans Tuesday to leave
the country "if they can do so safely."" ... "Haiti has been wracked by
violence in recent weeks with armed opponents of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide taking control of several cities." ... "Authorities believe the
rebels are a combination of former paramilitary troops and former supporters
of Aristide, who was ousted in a military coup in 1991 but won a new term
as president in 2000." -CNN
-
-
-
-
- "Al
Qaeda 'plan civil war in Iraq'." ... "The United
States says an al Qaeda operative is plotting to provoke a civil war in
Iraq as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern over divisions
among Iraqis on a plan to assume power." ... "U.S. officials in Baghdad
said U.S. forces had seized a computer disc that contained a letter outlining
the plan written by Abu Musab Zarqawi, who Washington suspects of links
to Ansar al-Islam -- a Muslim militant group operating in Iraq." -By
Joseph Logan -Reuters
via -Reuters.co.uk
-
- "CIA
tries to staunch wounds opened by Kay." ... "Mr Tenet
[the director of the Central Intelligence Agency] was disarmingly frank
on Thursday, admitting that while more time was needed to reach definitive
conclusions, the agency's judgments now looked suspect on all the key elements
of Iraq's weapons programmes - its nuclear, chemical and biological capabilities.
He acknowledged that CIA human intelligence was lacking in Iraq, forcing
it to rely on what turned out to be less than accurate sources provided
by other countries." ... ""Our record was mixed," he said. "While we had
voluminous reporting, the major judgments reached were based on a narrower
band of data." But he said that based on Saddam Hussein's history and on
the technical and human intelligence gathered by the agency, "it would
have been difficult for analysts to come to any different conclusions than
the ones we reached"." -By Edward Alden and Mark Huband
with contributions by Salamander Davoudi -FT.com
-
- 2004
ELECTION - "Pentagon
scraps 2004 online voting." ... "The Pentagon has
canceled plans to allow military personnel to vote online in the November
2004 presidential elections, a Defense Department spokeswoman said Thursday."
... "A group of four computer scientists criticized
the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment in a Jan.
20 report. The scientists were invited by the Pentagon to critique the
program, and they alleged that the SERVE system has numerous "security
problems that leave it vulnerable to a variety of well-known cyberattacks.""
-By David McGlinchey -GovExec.com
- "Bush's
Guard service: What the record shows." .. "Bush's
military records.... contain evidence that a lackadaisical Bush did not
report for required Guard duty for a full year during his six-year National
Guard enlistment." .. "A detailed Globe examination of the records in 2000
unearthed official reports by Bush's Guard commanders that they had not
seen him for a year. There was also no evidence that Bush had done part
of his Guard service in Alabama, as he has claimed. Bush's Guard appointment,
made possible by family connections, was cut short when Bush was allowed
to leave his Houston Guard unit eight months early to attend Harvard Business
School." ... "Bush received an honorable discharge in 1973. The records
contain no indication that Bush's commanding officers, one of them a friend,
ever accused him of shirking his duty." -By Walter
V. Robinson -Boston/Globe
-
-
- "Iraqi
Kurds Vow Unity as Blast Toll Reaches 67." ... "U.S.
military officials said the number killed in Sunday's coordinated attacks
had risen to 67 -- from an earlier estimate of 56 -- and those wounded
numbered 247." ... "The attacks, the worst since a suicide car bomb killed
more than 80 outside a mosque in the holy city of Najaf last August, killed
several senior members of the main Kurdish parties --the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party." ... "The attacks were
especially hard on the KDP, which lost its veteran deputy leader, Sami
Abdul-Rahman, whose moderate views carried much weight." (1, 2,
3)
-Reuters
-
-
-
- "Bush
to Establish Panel to Examine U.S. Intelligence."
... "President Bush will establish a bipartisan commission in the next
few days to examine American intelligence operations, including a study
of possible misjudgments about Iraq's unconventional weapons, senior administration
officials said Sunday. They said the panel would also investigate failures
to penetrate secretive governments and stateless groups that could attempt
new attacks on the United States." ... "The pressure to establish such
a panel became irresistible after David A. Kay, the former chief weapons
inspector, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that "it
turns out we were all wrong, probably," about the perceived Iraqi threat,
which was the administration's basic justification for the war." ... "The
commission will not report back until after the November elections. Some
former officials who have been approached about taking part say they believe
it may take 18 months or more to reach its conclusions." (1, 2)
-By David E. Sanger -NYTimes
-
-
- "Twin
Bombings in Northern Iraq Kill at Least 56." ...
"The attack took place on the first day of Id al-Adha, or the Feast of
Sacrifice, which commemorates the Koranic account of Ibrahim's willingness
to slay his son for God, and God's mercy in the face of such devotion.
American military officials have said they expect a surge in attacks during
the four-day holiday. This morning, Kurdish party leaders were receiving
hundreds of people in each building as part of the festivities." ... "The
bombings today killed senior officials of both the Kurdistan Democratic
Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which separately govern two
halves of the rugged region called Kurdistan." ... "The bomber at the offices
of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was a woman wearing a belt of explosives,
he [Bakhtiyar Amin, a spokesman for Kurdish representative Mahmoud Othman
of the Iraqi Governing Council] said, while the one at the offices of the
Kurdistan Democratic Party was wearing the robes of a cleric." -By
Edward Wong-NYTimes
via -Google-News
- -
- "Bombs
kill 12 in Iraq, including 3 U.S. soldiers." ...
"Two suicide bombers strapped with explosives have blown themselves up
in the offices of two Kurdish parties aligned with U.S. occupation forces
in northern Iraq, killing at least 56 people and wounding 200." ... "The
Arbil offices of Iraq's two main Kurdish political groups were crowded
with senior officials celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha when
the bombers struck, killing many top leaders of the two groups." -By
Shamal Aqrawi -Reuters
via -Reuters.co.uk
-
-
- "Bombs
kill 12 in Iraq, including 3 U.S. soldiers." ...
"Witnesses in Mosul, Iraq's major northern city, said what appeared to
be a suicide attacker drove through a security barricade in front of the
police station before blowing up his vehicle outside the building. Officials
confirmed a car bomb but wouldn't say if it was a suicide attack." ...
"In Kirkuk, a homemade bomb exploded as a 4th Infantry Division convoy
passed by about 25 miles southwest of the city today, killing the three
soldiers, the U.S. military said. The deaths raised to 522 the number of
U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq conflict."
-AP via -HoustonChronicle.com
-
- "U.N.
Election Team to Go to Iraq Within Days, Annan Says."
... "U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday he would send a team
to Iraq within days to explore the feasibility of holding an early election,
after he received security assurances from U.S.-led occupation forces."
-Reuters via -Wired
-
-
- "2
congressional panels echo Kay on Iraqi weaponry."
... "The House and Senate intelligence committees have unearthed a series
of failures in the prewar intelligence on Iraq similar to those identified
by former weapons inspector David Kay, leading them to believe that CIA
analysts and their superiors did not seriously consider the possibility
that Saddam Hussein no longer possessed weapons of mass destruction, according
to congressional officials." ... "The committees, working separately for
the past seven months, have determined that the CIA relied too heavily
on circumstantial, outdated intelligence and became overly dependent on
satellite and spy-plane imagery and communications intercepts." -By
Dana Priest & Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost
via -SFGate.com
-
- "U.S.
military probes blast in Afghanistan." ... "The U.S.
military Friday was investigating whether an explosion at a weapons cache
that killed seven American soldiers and wounded three was an accident or
an attack." ... "Thursday's blast — one of the deadliest for U.S. forces
since they deployed here two years ago — also left another American soldier
missing and wounded an Afghan interpreter."
-AP via -USATODAY
-
- "al-Qaida
Said Seeking Presence in Iraq." ... "The arrest of
top al-Qaida operative Hassan Ghul shows that the terrorist network is
seeking to establish a foothold in Iraq, a U.S. commander said Thursday."
-AP via -Miami/Herald
-
-
-
- "Afghan
offensive planned to slow Al-Qaida." ... "The Pentagon
is planning a new offensive in Afghanistan to stop remnants of the Taliban
regime and the Al-Qaida terror network, officials said Wednesday, even
as the second suicide assault in Kabul in two days killed one British soldier
and
injured four." -By Pauline Jelinek
-AP via -StarTribune.com
-
-
- "Army
given OK to temporarily increase its ranks." ...
"The Army's top general said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
hoping to quiet critics in Congress, has given him the authority to temporarily
increase the size of the Army by up to 30,000 troops until 2008." ... "Gen.
Peter Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, told the House Armed Services
Committee that the temporary increase would ease strains caused by U.S.-led
conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan but not require the billions of dollars
that a permanent troop increase would cost." -By Dave
Moniz -USATODAY
-
-
- "Kay
to Testify About Iraqi WMD Search: Kay to Testify
About Search for Iraq's Weapons As Some in Bush Administration Shift Positions."
... "Senators want to speak with the former top U.S. weapons inspector
who said he couldn't find evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons
of mass destruction, a primary justification by President Bush for the
war in Iraq." ... "As special adviser to CIA Director George Tenet, Kay
was chosen last year as the Iraq Survey Group leader in part because he
was convinced weapons would be found. "My suspicions are that we'll find
in the chemical and biological areas, in fact, I think there may be some
surprises coming rather quickly in that area," he said on CNN in June."-AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
-
- "Judicial
Inquiry Clears Blair on Iraq Intelligence Claims:
BBC Blamed for Broadcasting 'Unfounded' Allegations." ... "A judicial inquiry
cleared Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday of allegations aired by
the BBC that he and his aides had exaggerated intelligence claims about
Iraq's access to weapons of mass destruction and drove to suicide a British
weapons expert who raised questions about those claims." ... "While exonerating
Blair, Lord Brian Hutton blamed the BBC for broadcasting what he called
"unfounded" allegations in May of 2003 that the government had published
a "sexed-up" claim that Iraq could launch such weapons within 45 minutes
of an order despite knowing it was probably wrong." -By
Glenn Frankel -WashingtonPost
-
- "Truck
bomb detonates outside Baghdad hotel: Blast comes
day after 13 killed in attacks." ... "At least four other people -- all
Iraqis --were injured in the blast." ... "According to Gen. Mark Hertling,
the explosion happened at about 7:15 a.m. (11:15 p.m. Tuesday ET) in front
of the Shaheen Hotel in the Karada section of the Iraqi capital, battering
the front of the hotel and leaving a large crater in the road." ... "The
five attacks Tuesday killed six U.S. soldiers, two CNN employees, four
Iraqi policemen and an Iraqi civilian, according to police and military
sources." -CNN
-
- "Libya
Nuclear Components Arrive in U.S.: Plane Carrying
Components of Libya's Nuclear Weapons Program Arrives in U.S., White House
Says." ... "Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, following up a promise to end
his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, has shipped some 55,000 pounds
of nuclear and missile components to the United States in a bid to break
out of diplomatic isolation." ... "Bush administration officials indicated
Gadhafi could expect some easing of economic pressure in return if he continued
on a cooperative track. But one official told The Associated Press that
Libya had not proved it no longer supported terrorism."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- 
- 
- "From
Iraq to Libya, US knew little on weapons: Doubts
that Hussein had WMD raise questions about war's rationale and intelligence
reliability." ... "When it comes to unconventional weapons, Iraq may have
been far from the most dangerous country in the world after all. In recent
days a string of surprising revelations has scrambled the world's proliferation
threat assessments." ... "Iraq's weapons programs were apparently in shambles,
for instance, while Libya's were surprisingly advanced. Pakistan's nuclear
scientists might have been rogue agents, proffering secrets for cash. And
it appears that North Korea may be the most advanced rogue nuclear nation
of all, with an advanced capacity to produce fissile material." -By
Peter Grier -CSMonitor
-
-
- "Japan's
defense chief issues dispatch order for bulk of ground troops to Iraq."
... "Japan's defense chief issued a dispatch order Monday for the bulk
of the ground troops Japan is sending to Iraq, moving ahead with the humanitarian
mission despite concerns about the soldiers' safety." ... "Defense Agency
Director Shigeru Ishiba announced the order after the ruling Liberal Democrats
won backing from coalition partner the New Komeito Party, which had expressed
reservations about the deployment." -By Mari Yamaguchi
-AP via -Boston/Globe
-
- "Syria
denies hiding Iraq's WMDs." ... "An article in London's
Sunday Telegraph quoted David Kay, the outgoing leader of a U.S. weapons
search team in Iraq, as saying that part of Iraq's secret weapons program
had been hidden in Syria." ... "But in an interview aired later Sunday
on National Public Radio, Kay said it is difficult to determine whether
shipments to Syria included weapons, in part because Syria has refused
to cooperate in this part of the weapons investigation."
-CNN
-
-
-
-
- "WMD
hunter: No stockpiles in Iraq." ... "The man who
has led Washington's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, David
Kay, says he doesn't think large weapons stockpiles existed there past
the mid-1990s." ... "Kay quit his post as the CIA's chief weapons hunter
in Iraq and will be replaced by Charles Duelfer -- a former official with
the U.N.'s inspection team in Iraq." ... "Though Kay has said new information
has been uncovered about Iraq's programs --particularly its efforts to
build missiles --he has since concluded there are no weapons stockpiles
to be found." -CNN
-
- "Japan's
Diet to consider bill to change constitution." ...
"Most attention will focus on article 9, which renounces Japan's right
to belligerency. Many in the LDP want to amend the constitution to make
it easier for Japan to participate in international operations, such as
that in Iraq." ... "There is also an intention to normalise the status
of Self Defence Forces, Japan's armed forces-equivalent, whose status sits
uneasily with the constitutional ban on maintaining land, sea and air forces."
-By David Pilling -FT.com
ELECTION
2004 - "Reflecting
surge, Kerry focuses fire on Republicans." ... "Kerry
accused President Bush and his administration on Friday of shortchanging
health and pension programs for veterans. The tough, patriotic rhetoric
from the White House isn't backed up by actions, he told a group of 400
activists, most of them veterans." ... ""The first definition of patriotism
is keeping faith with those who have worn the uniform of the country,"
said Kerry, a decorated Navy veteran of Vietnam. He said some veterans
must wait too long for health care, while others who are disabled receive
a reduced pension." -By Mike Glover
-AP via -SFGate.com
-
- 
- "Two
U.S. pilots die when chopper comes down in northern Iraq."
... "A statement said the Kiowa helicopter came down at about 8:30 p.m.
(1730 GMT) northwest of Qayara, but that the cause of the crash was not
known and an accompanying helicopter did not mention any hostile activity."
-Reuters
-
- "Military
Copter Crash Kills 4 in Calif." ... "A military helicopter
crashed during a training mission at this [Camp Pendleton] base north of
San Diego, killing all four people aboard, officials said." ... "The UH-1
Huey, a cargo-type helicopter, crashed about 7 p.m. Thursday, Maj. T.V.
Johnson said." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- 
- "U.S.
Eyes Space as Possible Battleground." ... "President
Bush's plan to expand the exploration of space parallels U.S. efforts to
control the heavens for military, economic and strategic gain." ... "Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld long has pushed for technology that could be
used to attack or defend orbiting satellites as well as a costly program,
heavily reliant on space-based sensors, to thwart incoming warheads." ...
"The moon, scientists have said, is a source of potentially unlimited energy
in the form of the helium 3 isotope -- a near perfect fuel source: potent,
nonpolluting and causing virtually no radioactive byproduct in a fusion
reactor." (1, 2)
-By
Jim Wolf -Reuters
-
- "After
10 Months in Iraq, U.S. Marks 500th Military Death:
Blast Outside Occupation Headquarters Kills at Least 12." ... "The U.S.
military death toll after 10 months of engagement in Iraq reached 500 yesterday,
roughly matching the number of U.S. military personnel who died in the
first four years of the U.S. military engagement in Vietnam." ... "The
cumulative toll of 500 U.S. deaths was reached in Vietnam in 1965, the
year when the U.S. deployment there rose from 23,300 to 184,300 troops.
In Iraq, in contrast, the United States is rotating forces with the goal
of reducing the total from 130,000 to 105,000 by June and also sharply
scaling back its military presence in Baghdad." -By
R. Jeffrey Smith -WashingtonPost
-
- "Blast
kills at least 20 outside coalition headquarters in Iraq."
... "A suicide bomber blew up a pickup truck packed with 1,000 pounds of
explosives outside the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition Sunday, killing
at about 20 people and injuring more than 60 — most of them Iraqis." ...
"The attack on a chill, foggy morning in the heart of Baghdad was the deadliest
in Iraq since the capture of Saddam Hussein on Dec. 13 near his hometown
of Tikrit. The blast occurred a day before the top U.S. civil administrator
in Iraq was to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to ask for the
world body's help in rebuilding the country."
-AP via -USATODAY
-
-
- "Libya's
black market deals shock nuclear inspectors." ...
"Colonel Muammar Gadafy of Libya has been buying complete sets of uranium
enrichment centrifuges on the international black market as the central
element in his secret nuclear bomb programme, according to United Nations
nuclear inspectors." ... "The ease with which the complex bomb-making equipment
was acquired has stunned experienced international inspectors. The scale
and the sophistication of the networks supplying so-called rogue states
seeking nuclear weapons are considerably more extensive than previously
believed." -By Ian Traynor
-Guardian.co.uk
-
-
- "Japanese
sends first troops out to war zone since 1945." ...
"As an advanced team of Self-Defense Forces prepared to leave Friday for
Iraq, the first Japanese troops to be deployed since World War II to a
country with ongoing combat continued their training at their snow-covered
base here in northern Japan [Asahikawa]." ... "The troops have taken Arabic
lessons, and learned about the Koran and Ramadan. They have focused, above
all, on mastering their rules of engagement, the way in which they would
respond to a hostile situation in southern Iraq. While the details are
kept secret, the rules are said to be more muscular than the guidelines
under which the forces have operated in the past." -By
Norimitsu Onishi-NYTimes
via -IHT.com
-
- "Libya
Ratifies the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty." ... "Libya
has ratified the nuclear test ban treaty, a United Nations agency said
Wednesday, less than three weeks after Libya publicly renounced its plans
to develop outlawed weapons." ... "Libya's nuclear program was nowhere
near producing a weapon. Still, the announcement appeared to be a further
sign of commitment by its leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, to give up the
program." -AP
via -NYTimes
-
-
- "Cuba
detainees seek right to appeal." ... "The Bush administration's
plan to use military tribunals to try foreign terrorism suspects should
allow appeals to civilian courts, five military lawyers assigned to suspects
held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said Wednesday in papers filed with the Supreme
Court." ... ""The Constitution cannot countenance an open-ended presidential
power, with no civilian review whatsoever, to try anyone the president
deems is subject to a military tribunal," the five officers argued." -By
Richard Willing -USATODAY
-
-
-
- "Kennedy
Hits Bush On War." ... "President Bush marketed the
war on Iraq as a "political product" to influence the 2002 elections and
is doing so again this year, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) charged yesterday
in a scathing speech accusing Bush of putting politics ahead of national
security." ... ""No president of the United States should employ misguided
ideology and distortion of the truth to take the nation to war," he said.
"In doing so, the president broke the basic bond of trust between the government
and the people. If Congress and the American people knew the whole truth,
America would never have gone to war."" -By Helen
Dewar -WashingtonPost
-
- "Nephews
of Saddam official captured." ... "[Also,] In Ramadi,
west of Baghdad, U.S. troops captured Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, a former
regional Baath Party chairman and militia commander who was No. 54 on the
list of 55 most-wanted figures, the military said Wednesday." ... "Two
of the nephews arrested Wednesday are suspected of helping to hide their
uncle, former Iraqi Vice President Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. Al-Douri has
a $10 million bounty on his head and is suspected to have been orchestrating
insurgent attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces." ... "Al-Douri, a former
Revolutionary Command Council vice chairman, is No. 6 on the U.S. list
of 55 most-wanted Iraqis. The top five on the list have either been captured
or killed." -By Paul Garwood with contributions by
Sameer N. Yacoub -AP
via -Salon/news/wire
-
-
- "U.S.
Hails Mongolia's Troops in Iraq." ... "In Iraq, a
contingent of 173 Mongolian soldiers began serving under a Polish-led multinational
force last fall. They are operating around Hillah, in the southern part
of the country." ... "They amount to a drop in the bucket compared with
the thousands of U.S. and British troops occupying Iraq. But their presence
shows the former Soviet satellite state's efforts to refashion a portion
of its military into one available for peacekeeping missions worldwide."
-By John J. Lumpkin -AP
via -Miami/Herald
-
-
- 
- "Army
War College article says invasion of Iraq was 'strategic error'."
... "A report published by the Army War College calls the Bush administration's
war on terrorism unfocused and says the invasion of Iraq was "a strategic
error."" ... "The research paper by Jeffrey Record, a professor at the
Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, said the president's
strategy "promises much more than it can deliver" and threatens to spread
U.S. military resources too thin. Record also wrote that Saddam Hussein's
Iraq did not present a threat to the United States and was a distraction
from the war on terrorism." -By Bob Johnson
-AP via -SFGate.com
-
- "Pakistan
vows to beef up security on Afghan border." ... "Pakistan's
prime minister vowed on Monday to beef up security along the border with
Afghanistan, where Islamic militants are active, as part of the neighbours'
joint fight against terrorism." ... "Zafarullah Khan Jamali also offered
to donate 100 buses and 200 trucks to Pakistan's war-torn neighbour and
pledged to build a railway and repair a road in two Afghan border provinces."
-By Sayed Salahuddin -Reuters
-
- "U.S.
soldier killed in bombing; blasts rock central Baghdad."
... "Ukrainian soldiers fired into the air Monday to disperse hundreds
of Iraqis who rioted for jobs and food as a second southern Shiite Muslim
city [Kut, Iraq] was rocked by unrest — a barometer of rising frustration
with the U.S. led-occupation in a region of Iraq considered friendly to
the Americans." ... "Also Monday, a roadside bomb in the capital killed
one American soldier and wounded two, bringing the U.S. death toll in the
Iraqi conflict to 495. Large explosions rocked central Baghdad later in
the day, but officials reported no casualties."
-AP via -USATODAY
-
-
-
- "In first
visit by outsiders in a year, U.S. experts tour Korea nuclear site."
... "North Korea declared Saturday that it had shown what it called a "nuclear
deterrent" to the unofficial delegation, but officials familiar with their
visit to the North's main nuclear site said they had seen the facilities
to produce bomb fuel rather than an actual weapon." ... "The members of
the delegation declined to give a description of the facilities they inspected
until they had a chance to brief the Bush administration. But officials
who have received sketchy reports say the tour was clearly intended to
signal to the United States that President George W. Bush's efforts to
dissuade North Korea from moving forward with its nuclear program had failed,
and that officials in Washington should accept that North Korea is an undeclared
nuclear power, much as it accepts that Pakistan and Israel are nuclear-weapons
nations." -AP,
-Reuters, & -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
-
- "US
puts Baathists 'on parole': An experiment in an Iraqi
region is using new methods to disarm potential insurgents." ... "It's
one of the US military's most innovative efforts to deal with Iraq's postwar
insurgency." ... "Last Monday, after weeks of talks, the 12 senior Baathists
in the Talafar region, about 210 miles northwest of Baghdad, met with US
officers. They denounced the Baath Party in a ceremony broadcast on radio
and arranged to hand over of more than 522 AK-47s, dozens of rocket-propelled
grenades, and nearly 100 mortar rounds and the tools to fire them." ...
"What's in it for these leaders is the prospect of reducing the threat
of arrest -as well as eventual rehabilitation in their communities and
a chance at getting back jobs they lost after the invasion." -By
Dan Murphy -CSMonitor
-
-
- "Bush
began Iraq plan pre-9/11, O'Neill says." ... "President
Bush and his senior aides began plotting the invasion of Iraq just days
after he took office in January 2001 and not, as the administration has
indicated, after terrorists struck against the United States eight months
later, according to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who was forced
from his post in December 2002." ... "In an interview scheduled to air
tonight on CBS News' "60 Minutes," O'Neill derided what he considered the
administration's intent from the start to remove Saddam Hussein by force."
... ""From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein
was a bad person and that he needed to go," O'Neill told the news program,
according to excerpts released yesterday. "For me, the notion of preemption,
that the US has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is
a really huge leap."" -By Bryan Bender-Boston/Globe
-
-
- "Hussein
declared to be a POW: The general counsel office
in the Pentagon has determined that Saddam Hussein is a prisoner of war
because of his status as former commander in chief of Iraq's military."
... "Pentagon lawyers have determined that Saddam Hussein has been a prisoner
of war since American forces captured him Dec. 13, a Defense Department
spokesman said Friday." ... "Despite that determination, aides to Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were grappling Friday with what to say publicly
about the issue. A senior defense official who insisted he not be named
said Hussein's legal status was still under review." ... "Similarly, Secretary
of State Colin Powell told CBS News: ''I don't know that he has been formally
declared a prisoner of war.'' It was up to the Pentagon, Powell said."
-By Matt Kelley-AP
via -Miami/Herald
-
-
- "U.S.
Withdraws a Team of Weapons Hunters From Iraq." ...
"The Bush administration has quietly withdrawn from Iraq a 400-member military
team [the Joint Captured Matériel Exploitation Group] whose job
was to scour the country for military equipment, according to senior government
officials." ... "The step was described by some military officials as a
sign that the administration might have lowered its sights and no longer
expected to uncover the caches of chemical and biological weapons that
the White House cited as a principal reason for going to war last March."
... "A separate military team that specializes in disposing of chemical
and biological weapons remains part of the 1,400-member Iraq Survey Group,
which has been searching Iraq for more that seven months at a cost of hundreds
of millions of dollars." (1, 2)
-By Douglas Jehl -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
-
- "US
releases 60 Iraqi prisoners." ... "The US army freed
about 60 prisoners from the feared Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad today,
the first detainees to be released under a new amnesty introduced by the
coalition provisional authority (CPA)." ... "Paul Bremer, the heed of the
CPA in Iraq, announced the amnesty for low-threat detainees yesterday[.]"
... "As part of wider US efforts to bring about reconciliation in Iraq,
the military will release around 500 prisoners in total. Around 9,000 Iraqis
have been detained in the eight months since the overthrow of the Saddam
regime." -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
- "U.S.
helicopter goes down near Fallujah; nine killed."
... "A U.S. Black Hawk medivac helicopter crashed Thursday near a stronghold
of the anti-American insurgency, killing all nine soldiers aboard, the
U.S. military said." ... "Also Thursday, a U.S. soldier died of injuries
suffered in a mortar attack a day earlier that wounded 33 other troops
and a civilian west of Baghdad." -AP
via -USATODAY
-
- "35
GIs Injured in Mortar Attack at Base Near Baghad, Military Says."
... "Six mortar rounds impacted about 6:45 p.m. at Logistical Base Seitz,
the military said in a statement." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "S
Korea welcomes North's nuclear offer." ... "South
Korea's foreign minister on Wednesday welcomed North Korea's offer to freeze
its nuclear programme in return for economic aid and diplomatic concessions,
saying it would help the US and other countries resume six-way talks on
the nuclear crisis." ... "North Korea specified that it was willing to
"refrain from test and production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating
the nuclear power industry for a peaceful purpose as first-phase measures
of the package solution". In exchange, North Korea demanded that the US
lift political, economic and other sanctions." -By
Song Jung-a in Seoul and Guy Dinmore -FT.com
-
-
- "U.S.
Opens Bidding for New Iraq Work." ... "The United
States opened up bidding on Wednesday for $5 billion in new contracts to
rebuild Iraq, the first in a string of lucrative deals funded by $18.6
billion appropriated by the U.S. Congress but barred to those nations who
opposed the Iraq war." ... "After more than a month's delay, the Pentagon-run
Program Management Office kicked off bidding by issuing solicitations overnight
for 17 major construction contracts and project management deals to oversee
the work." (1, 2)
-By Sue Pleming -Reuters
-
-
- "Militants
to fight on in Kashmir: Islamic militants have vowed
to continue fighting against Indian forces in the disputed region of Kashmir."
... "The pledge came after India and Pakistan agreed to hold historic talks
to try to resolve their long and bitter dispute over the region." ... "Jaish-e-Mohammad
spokesman Mohammad Hassan Burki told the BBC by mobile phone that his group
would keep up its jihad, or holy war, until Kashmir was freed from Indian
control." ... "Syed Salahuddin, the chief of Kashmir's largest militant
group, the Hizbul Mujahideen, also said its military operations would continue."
-BBC/News
-
- "U.S.
plans boost in security during Iraq troop rotation:
More than 250,000 to be flown in and out over the next 4 months." ... "Even
with the recent reduction in attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, war planners
are eyeing stepped-up air patrols and other security measures to safely
rotate fresh troops into the country early next year out of fear the massive
turnover will give guerrillas a new set of potential targets, according
to defense officials." ... "More than 250,000 troops will take to the roads
in convoys and be flown in and out of the country in the first four months
of 2004, along with an estimated 600,000 tons of equipment, the Pentagon
predicts. The movement increases the chances for a spike in attacks from
insurgents armed with missiles, rockets, and roadside bombs, the officials
said." -By Bryan Bender
-Boston/Globe
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Bomb
kills 10 New Year revelers in Indonesia's Aceh province; Police blame separatist
rebels." ... "A bomb tore through a crowded New Year's
concert in Indonesia's Aceh province, killing 10 people -- including three
children -- and challenging government claims that security in the restive
region is improving." ... "Wednesday's blast, which also wounded 45 people,
was the bloodiest bombing in Aceh since the government on May 19 abandoned
a six-month truce and launched a military offensive against the rebels."
... "Authorities accused separatist guerrillas of the bombing -- a claim
denied by the insurgents, who have been fighting since 1976 for independence
for their oil-and gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island."
-By Chris Brummitt -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Koizumi
makes controversial visit to war shrine." ... "Junichiro
Koizumi, Japan's prime minister, on Thursday visited a shrine that venerates
the country's war-dead, including several war criminals, in a move that
is likely to trigger protests from Japan's neighbours." ... "The [Yasukuni]
shrine honours the 2.5m Japanese who have died in war since the 1850s.
But for some it is a symbol of Japan's military expansion and brutal colonisation
of its Asian neighbours because of the 14 convicted war criminals buried
on the site." -By Bayan Rahman
-FT.com
| HavenWorks.com/military/archive/2003 |
|
|
|
News-
|
>Stand |
|
