06/10/04
Submitted by Templar Titan on Fri, 06/11/2004 - 18:13.
Top Stories
|
|
TOP STORIES Bush Wants NATO Relief In Iraq France Sounds Unreceptive (USA Today, June 10, 2004, Pg. 1) President Bush, eager to reduce U.S. responsibilities in Iraq, said that he hopes NATO will take a more active role there. British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed, but French President Jacques Chirac said: "It does not fit within the vocation of NATO to intervene in Iraq." NATO decisions must be unanimous. Higher-Ranking Officer Is Sought To Lead The Abu Ghraib Inquiry (New York Times, June 10, 2004, Pg. 1) The commander of American forces in the Middle East asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this week to replace the general investigating suspected abuses by military intelligence soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison with a more senior officer, a step that would allow the inquiry to reach into the military's highest ranks in Iraq. Pentagon officials said Rumsfeld most likely will approve the request. Some See Torture Memo As Putting GIs At Risk (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 10, 2004, Pg. 1) A March 2003 Pentagon report arguing that the United States is not bound by laws and treaties against torture has caused a rift between Bush administration officials seeking maximum leeway to question prisoners and military lawyers who fear reprisals against U.S. troops. Former Militia Members Eyed For Iraqi Security (Washington Times, June 10, 2004, Pg. 1) An agreement to disband 100,000 Iraqi militiamen could speed up the turnover of security functions to locals and help fill out the country's emerging, quarter-million-strong police and military, U.S. officials say. "It does provide a talent pool," observed Dan Senor, spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority. Detainees' Medical Files Shared Guantanamo Interrogators' Access Criticized (Washington Post, June 10, 2004, Pg. 1) Military interrogators at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been given access to the medical records of individual prisoners, a breach of patient confidentiality that ethicists describe as a violation of international medical standards designed to protect captives from inhumane treatment. A Tough Time For 'Neocons' (Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2004, Pg. 1) Once, they exulted in the Iraq war. Now, with the setbacks in the region and the Chalabi spy probe, neoconservatives in the Bush administration are feeling besieged. IRAQ Bush, On 'A Special Day,' Greets New Iraqi Leader (New York Times, June 10, 2004) An emotional President Bush met for the first time with the newly designated interim president of Iraq, Sheik Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, telling him, "I never thought I'd be sitting next to an Iraqi president of a free country a year and a half ago." Kurds Win Round On Constitution (New York Times, June 10, 2004) Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said that his government would adhere to the interim constitution agreed to in March until elections are held next year, in an effort to defuse, at least temporarily, a looming crisis with the Kurdish leadership. The Kurds were alarmed they might lose the autonomy guaranteed in the interim document. Attackers Hit Oil Pipelines, Police And A U.S. Convoy (New York Times, June 10, 2004) Insurgents attacked on several fronts in Iraq, firing mortars at an Iraqi militia brigade west of Baghdad, setting ablaze two important oil pipelines in the north and ambushing an American military convoy in the capital. Attack On Iraqi Brigade Shatters Fallouja Calm; Major Pipelines Hit (Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2004) A mortar attack shattered several weeks of relative calm in Falloujah, wounding 12 members of a special Iraqi brigade created last month to end the bloody standoff between U.S. forces and insurgents in the restive city. Iraq's Security Forces Not Ready (Denver Post, June 10, 2004) Misguided U.S. training of Iraqi police contributed to the country's instability and has delayed getting enough qualified Iraqis on the streets to ease the burden on American forces, the head of armed-forces training said Wednesday. "It hasn't gone well. We've had almost one year of no progress," said Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who leaves Iraq next week after spending a year assembling and training the country's 200,000 army, police and civil defense troops. U.N. To Keep Distance In Iraq Because Of Safety Fears (Washington Post, June 10, 2004, Pg. 14) The day after the U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed to take a "leading role" in building democratic institutions in Iraq, wary officials of the world body were asking one another what will happen if bombs continue to explode. With Potential For A Harsh Summer, Basic City Services Become The Priority (New York Times, June 10, 2004) Maj. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the American commander responsible for security and reconstruction in Baghdad, is warning of a long and violent summer. Power blackouts are likely as temperatures climb toward 120 degrees. The central government to be installed June 30 is expected to be a target of attack. And it is not even certain who will pay the Iraqi security forces. Bremer Must Be Seen To Leave, Say British (London Daily Telegraph, June 10, 2004) Britain is pressing the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, to board a flight out of Baghdad on June 30 to provide a visible symbol of the end of the occupation. "Our view is that he should be photographed getting on his plane and waving farewell," said a senior official, "otherwise Iraqis will think he has gone back into his palace to continue running affairs. Iraq is full of conspiracy theories." Suspect Items From Iraq Shipped Abroad, U.N. Says (New York Times, June 10, 2004) Equipment and material that could have been used to produce banned weapons and long-range missiles have been emptied from Iraqi sites since the war started and shipped abroad, the head of the U.N. inspectors office told the Security Council. Iraqi Abuse Rife, Guardsman Says (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 10, 2004) A California National Guardsman says three fellow soldiers brazenly abused detainees during interrogation sessions in an Iraqi police station, threatening them with guns, sticking lighted cigarettes in their ears and choking them until they collapsed. Sgt. Greg Ford said he repeatedly had to revive prisoners who had passed out and once saw a soldier stand on the back of a handcuffed detainee's neck and pull his arms until they popped out of their sockets. IRAQ-ABU GHRAIB Top Officer Seeks New Head Of Iraq Inquiry (Washington Post, June 10, 2004, Pg. 13) The top U.S. general in Iraq has asked that he be removed as the senior officer overseeing an investigation of military intelligence soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison. The moves open the way for the investigation, which has focused on the roles played by interrogators in the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib, to expand up the chain of command and include the questioning of senior officers in Iraq. CACI And Titan Sued Over Iraq Operations (Washington Post, June 10, 2004, Pg. E3) The Center for Constitutional Rights sued CACI International and Titan Corp. on behalf of several Iraqi prisoners, accusing the government contractors of conspiring with U.S. officials to abuse Iraqi detainees and failing to properly supervise their own employees. Rights Group Releases Report On Abu Ghraib Prison Abuses (wsj.com, June 9, 2004) The Bush administration "circumvented" the Geneva Convention with the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, deliberately allowing illegal interrogation techniques, then covering up or ignored reports of torture and abuse, the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a new report. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT Lawyers Raised Concerns On Interrogations Methods In Cuba Were Questioned (USA Today, June 10, 2004, Pg. 13) Military attorneys working for the Pentagon's top general raised concerns early in 2003 that interrogation guidelines approved for use at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could put their boss in legal jeopardy if prisoners there were abused, three Defense Department officials said. Staff lawyers for Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined a group of the Pentagon's top uniformed legal officers in questioning tougher interrogation methods for prisoners at Guantanamo that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld eventually authorized in April 2003. Guantanamo List Details Approved Interrogation Methods (Washington Post, June 10, 2004, Pg. 13) A still-classified list of 24 interrogation methods approved for use on Guantanamo Bay detainees includes placing prisoners in uncomfortable interrogation cells and deceiving them into thinking they are in the hands of Middle East interrogators who know all about their culture, a U.S. government official said. Navy To Probe How Army Runs Detention Sites Rumsfeld Orders Investigations In Iraq, Afghanistan (Chicago Tribune, June 9, 2004, Pg. 1) Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ordered the Navy's inspector general to investigate prisoner operations and intelligence gathering practices conducted chiefly by the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pentagon Fights Charges White House Allowed Torture (London Financial Times, June 10, 2004) The Pentagon sought to counter accusations that the Bush administration sanctioned the use of torture in the war on terrorism. The move came as the White House faced mounting criticism this week following the leak of internal reports by Pentagon and Justice department lawyers that said some forms of torture could be allowed under U.S. and international law. Pentagon To Stress Speed Over Mass Cites Afghan, Iraqi Experiences (Washington Times, June 10, 2004, Pg. 6) The Bush administration is nearing completion of a new defense posture that will shift troops and weapons overseas and emphasize rapid deployment over sheer numbers of troops, tanks, ships and aircraft, senior officials said. Talks are under way with governments in Europe and Asia, including China, about the new basing and power-projection plans. ARMY Careful Plan Aims To Destroy U.S. Cache Of Deadly Nerve Gas (Miami Herald, June 10, 2004) After years of controversy, workers will begin chemically neutralizing 1,269 tons of the ultra-deadly nerve agent VX this summer at the Army's Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana as part of a plan to eliminate the nation's chemical weapons stockpile. But a dispute over what will become of the project's wastewater could leave the rural community about 70 miles west of Indianapolis stuck with the nerve agent's legacy. Varied Career Prepared General For High-Profile Assignment (Washington Post, June 10, 2004, Pg. 22) He has served with the elite Special Forces and struggled to defeat Colombian drug traffickers. Now, Maj. Gen. Galen B. Jackman has an assignment that is less dangerous but every bit as sensitive: accompanying Nancy Reagan through the rituals surrounding former president Ronald Reagan's funeral. NAVY Admiral: Navy Needs 55 Subs (Defense Today, June 10, 2004, Pg. 1) The Navy needs a fleet of 55 submarines, regardless of some analysts who suggest that as few as 33 boats can do the job, Rear Adm. Joseph Walsh, director of submarine warfare, said in an interview. AIR FORCE Court Clears Way For Fighter Pilot's Trial (Chicago Tribune, June 9, 2004) A military appeals court has cleared the way for the court-martial of an Air National Guard fighter pilot from Illinois in the accidental bombing of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. The stay was imposed in February after the attorney for the pilot, Maj. Harry Schmidt, sought classified materials about the mission. The appeals court found that the defense received limited but sufficient access to the materials. CONGRESS Lawmakers Oppose Plan To Ease Sales Of U.S. Arms (New York Times, June 10, 2004) House Republican leaders are blocking a Bush administration plan to waive licensing rules so Britain and Australia, two of America's closest allies in the fight against terrorism, can buy certain military items from the United States. Administration officials, who have spent three years negotiating with the two countries over the terms for such waivers, say safeguards are in place to keep weapons from being diverted to terrorists, as some lawmakers fear. House Panel Says No To Nuke Funding (USA Today, June 10, 2004, Pg. 6) A House panel rejected the Bush administration's request for money to research a nuclear "bunker-buster" bomb that critics said could increase the chances the United States would use a nuclear weapon in war. An Appropriations subcommittee also wiped out funding for "advanced concepts" in nuclear weapons and accelerated testing. Panel To Probe CIA Failure To Predict Extent Of Insurgency Spy Agencies' Prewar Analyses 'Were Just Wrong' (USA Today, June 10, 2004, Pg. 13) As it prepares to release a report highly critical of the CIA for overestimating the prewar Iraq threat, the Senate Intelligence Committee is beginning a new probe, this time into why U.S. spy agencies failed to foresee the strength of the postwar insurgency there. AFGHANISTAN New Clashes In Afghanistan (New York Times, June 10, 2004) In a second large-scale clash in less than a week in southern Afghanistan, American military officials said that U.S. Marines and Afghan government troops killed about 20 suspected Taliban fighters in combat in Oruzgan Province on Tuesday. They said two Americans, two Afghans and one interpreter were wounded. American Soft-Sell Turns Afghans Against Al-Qa'eda (London Daily Telegraph, June 10, 2004) In Iraq bombs are used to fight the war, but in Afghanistan the U.S. military has a subtle new set of weapons in its arsenal: schools, wells and roads, or what is known in military parlance as "combat marketing." Says one village elder: "We support the Americans, not the Taliban because they were only for destruction, not construction." U.S. To Permit Red Cross Visit (New York Times, June 10, 2004) American military officials said that they would allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to resume visits to a prisoner detention facility on the Kandahar air base in southern Afghanistan. The military had allowed the Red Cross to visit only the main detention center in Bagram, just north of Kabul, maintaining that the Kandahar facility was a prisoner transit point. TERRORISM Two Are Said To Tell Of Libyan Plot To Kill Saudi Ruler (New York Times, June 10, 2004) While Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was renouncing terrorism and negotiating the lifting of sanctions last year, his intelligence chiefs ordered a covert operation to assassinate the ruler of Saudi Arabia and destabilize the oil-rich kingdom, according to statements by two participants in the alleged conspiracy who are now in U.S. and Saudi custody. Terror Suspects Reportedly Discussed Chemical Attack In U.S. (Washington Post, June 10, 2004, Pg. 12) An Italian prosecutor said that he had provided U.S. authorities with transcripts of phone calls between terror suspects, including one transcript that reportedly refers to a woman ready to carry out a chemical attack in the United States. Two terror suspects were arrested late Monday in Milan, including Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, an Egyptian believed to have been behind the March 11 train bombings in Madrid Bomb Would Have Been Dud, Scientists Say (New York Times, June 10, 2004) The "dirty bomb" that the terror suspect Jose Padilla has been accused of planning would have been a dud, not the radiological threat federal authorities described last week, scientists say. Detonating such a device, described as "uranium wrapped with explosives," would have been "the equivalent of blowing up lead," said Ivan Oelrich, a physicist with the Federation of American Scientists. There would be no significant radiation hazard. BUSINESS Tending To Employees In A War Zone (Washington Post, June 10, 2004, Pg. E1) Preparing bids for contract work in Iraq can be lengthy and arduous; landing on the ground and getting the job done is taxing and dangerous. Dozens of contractors have died in attacks and accidents; others have been kidnapped and held hostage. But beneath those obvious challenges is a thick layer of logistical and human resources tasks that companies sending workers into a war zone must take on. US Air Force Chief Calls For European Competition (London Financial Times, June 10, 2004) Air Force Secretary James Roche called for European defense contractors to get more access to Pentagon contracts to stimulate stiffer competition in the domestic aerospace industry. "I have always wanted to have a situation where you take this transatlantic thing seriously," Roche said. "It's the only way we're going to discipline the big airframe makers in the United States." Army's 'Warrior' Videogame Is A Hit With Civilians, Too (Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2004, Pg. B1) Bearded fighters with their heads wrapped in cloth. Arabic graffiti scrawled on walls. Military uniforms accurate down to the style of boot. Details like these lend credibility to "Full Spectrum Warrior," a hot new videogame in which players take on the role of U.S. Army squad leaders in a hostile urban-combat zone. The reason the game is so realistic: The Army spent millions of dollars and thousands of manpower hours on developing the game as a training tool. Worldwide Military Spending Up Sharply (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 10, 2004) World military spending soared to $956 billion in 2003, nearly half of it by the United States as it paid for missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror, according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. OPINION Our View How Innocent Iraqis Came To Be Abused As Terrorists Standards Were Compromised In Post-9/11 Zeal To Catch Terrorists (USA Today, June 10, 2004, Pg. 14) The U.S. soldiers who abused Iraqi prisoners did so because they got the wrong message, from their commanders, the Pentagon and the White House. Repeatedly, President Bush referred to the Iraqi insurgents as "terrorists." To soldiers accustomed to the rules of Afghanistan or Guantanamo, that could easily mean the Geneva conventions do not apply. The result is a scandal that aids the enemy, endangers U.S. soldiers and insults the nation's most basic standards of decency. Opposing View Terrorists Are Different Members Of Al-Qaeda, Taliban Do Not Qualify For Special Privileges Alberto R. Gonzales (USA Today, June 10, 2004, Pg. 14) President Bush's attorney writes that in all aspects of the nation's war on terror, including the conflict in Iraq, it is the policy of the United States to comply with governing laws and treaty obligations, including the Geneva Conventions. But conferring POW status on terrorists would reward those who, by hiding among civilian populations, undermine the convention's basic objective of protecting innocent citizens, would only encourage terrorists to continue to violate the laws of war. Fight Fire With Compassion Donald P. Gregg (New York Times, June 10, 2004) A 30-year CIA veteran recalls that the agency took a strong stand against the use of torture to interrogate suspects during the Vietnam War. "By treating prisoners humanely we frequently, though not always, gained valuable intelligence from them. This was particularly true of battered prisoners who had held out against prolonged South Vietnamese torture, but responded to being treated with compassion by Americans." A Plunge From The Moral Heights Richard Cohen (Washington Post, June 10, 2004, Pg. 19) "It is commonly said that we are a nation of laws, not men. And we are. But beyond the laws, we are also a nation of men and women with a common ethic. Some things are not American. Torture, for damned sure, is one of them." Physician, Turn Thyself In M. Gregg Bloche (New York Times, June 10, 2004) An expert on law and health policy writes that when guards and interrogators become torturers, doctors are first responders. International law demands that they act as such. In Iraq, it appears, a "don't ask, don't tell" ethic stood in the way. By staying silent for months, until an inquest began, doctors and nurses abandoned their patients. "But these doctors and nurses probably saw enough to offer smoking-gun evidence of what went awry at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. It is time for us to ask and them to tell." D-Day In Iraq Thomas L. Friedman (New York Times, June 10, 2004) Now that the interim Iraqi government is assuming sovereignty, it will be increasingly important for U.S. forces to assume a lower profile, to get out of the faces of Iraqis at checkpoints and eliminate any impression that Iraq is still under U.S. occupation or that the new Iraqi government is our puppet. America needs to throw all its resources into getting Iraqi soldiers trained and able to take on their own opposition. Only Iraqis will find out who their bad guys are and have the legitimacy to defeat them. An Eyewitness To The Iraq Botch Larry Diamond (Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2004) A senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and former adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq writes that because of a long catalog of strategic and tactical blunders, the United States has failed to come anywhere near meeting the postwar expectations of Iraqis. "It now seems clear that the occupation will leave a mixed, and on balance negative, record when the Americans hand over power June 30. Though we leave behind a framework for political transition, it is hobbled by two huge deficits: security and legitimacy." Why America's South Korea Plan Makes Sense Michael O'Hanlon (International Herald Tribune, June 10, 2004) A co-author of "Crisis on the Korean Peninsula" writes that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's plan to cut U.S. troop strength in South Korea by a third and to move southward most of the forces that remain makes "eminent sense," when viewed on its own terms. This is not to defend the Bush administration's broader strategy for dealing with North Korea, including an inflexible approach to negotiation coupled with its fear-inspiring doctrine of pre-emption. EDITORIAL The U.N. Go-Ahead On Iraq (New York Times, June 10, 2004) The Bush administration's success in obtaining a U.N. Security Council resolution conferring international legitimacy on the interim Iraqi government cannot undo everything that went before: President Bush's disastrous decision to rush into the invasion without Security Council endorsement, the ineptly planned occupation and all the damage those policies have done to Iraq and the Middle East and to American relationships around the world. Next Up, Iraq Elections (Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2004, Pg. 12) The United Nations is proposing that January's national elections in Iraq award political parties a share of legislative seats based on their percentage of the vote. Proponents say the system better allows all significant voices to be heard. But even in the best of cases-Italy over much of the past 50 years-such proportional systems tend to produce unstable governments easily paralyzed by the little parties they have to cobble into a majority coalition. The Carrot Of Compromise (Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2004) The Bush administration showed a rare willingness to compromise in negotiations leading to the Security Council's unanimous endorsement of the interim Iraqi government. This new multilateralism will have to be permanent if the United States hopes to get the assistance it desperately needs from its old but snubbed allies. Source: Defense News
|
